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Key Concepts in Chemistry

Mendeleev's periodic table

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Overview

How Mendeleev ordered the elements by relative atomic mass and grouped them by properties, why he left gaps and how his predictions were confirmed, what periodic means, why some pairs fell out of order and were swapped, and ordering by atomic number today.

What you need to know

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Key term

Why did Mendeleev leave gaps in his table?

Key term

How did Mendeleev use his table to predict elements that had not been discovered?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    On what basis did Dmitri Mendeleev arrange the elements known in his time?

    Model answer

    He placed them in order of increasing relative atomic mass and grouped elements with similar properties together.

  2. 2

    Which properties did Mendeleev use to decide where an element belonged?

    Model answer

    He used the properties of the elements themselves and the properties of the compounds they formed.

  3. 3

    Why did Mendeleev leave gaps in his table?

    Model answer

    He left a gap wherever no known element had the right properties, expecting an undiscovered element to fill it.

  4. 4

    Why was Mendeleev's table an improvement on simply listing the elements by mass?

    Model answer

    Placing similar elements in the same column revealed a repeating pattern in their properties.

  5. 5

    What does the word periodic mean in the name periodic table?

    Model answer

    It means that similar properties recur at regular intervals along the sequence of elements.

  6. 6

    How did Mendeleev use his table to predict elements that had not been discovered?

    Model answer

    He used the properties of the elements surrounding each gap to work out what the missing element would be like.

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