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Asked by to Clare, Divya, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: Do you think the periodic table could layed out differently so that beginners can understand it easier?
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Ian Hands-Portman answered on 13 Mar 2014:
Many people have tried different ways to lay out the periodic table – you can find some on Wikipedia but all the layouts have problems just like the traditional one.
I think the reason we still use that layout is it is the easiest to follow ( as long as you ignore transition elements! ), for the columns on the sides it gives a really good idea how the elements behave chemically. Anything in the same column as lithium probably shouldn’t be mixed with water and anything in the same column as fluorine is nasty and corrosive.
When you’re actually in the lab you don’t use it very often – you look up a few things now and then but once you’ve looked up the weight of sodium a dozen times it stays in your head anyway.
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Divya Venkatesh answered on 13 Mar 2014:
Noo, I think it makes a lot of sense as it is. Have you heard the elements song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIvXVMbII0 and, the new one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUDDiWtFtEM
Also, if you haven’t checked out the Crash course series on youtube yet, you should! I went through the whole history one in a couple of sittings. They do Chem and Bio too, and here’s the periodic table one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRVV4Diomg
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Lewis Dean answered on 13 Mar 2014:
I like the way the periodic table is set out! I am sure that there are other ways of doing it, but in the end you will still need to learn it!
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Jess Smith answered on 14 Mar 2014:
Yes I like it as well, as you get higher up the school it will start to make more and more sense I promise!
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