The Periodic Table of Elements

What is the Periodic Table?

It is a table of all of the chemical elements. An element is something that is made of

only one kind of atom. An atom is a very small particle, and every element is made
of a different kind of atom.
How are Atoms of Different Elements Different?

In 1800, the English chemist John Dalton came up with his theory that all elements
are made of different atoms, and that atoms of different elements all have different
mass. For example, a single atom of oxygen is heavier than a single atom of
hydrogen.
He also explained his experiments by saying that different atoms could join together
to make a particle with more than one atom. This is called a molecule. Molecules
can be made of atoms of the same element, or made of atoms of different
elements, called compounds.

Molecules
Atoms of one made of atoms
element of both
elements

Atoms of another element

Where does the Periodic Table fit in?

In 1869, the Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev noticed that some

elements behave similar to others. In other words, they have very similar
physical and chemical properties. For example, metals like Silver and
Aluminium are often Malleable (bendy) and Lustrous (shiny); Lithium
and Sodium are both very reactive; Silicon and Carbon both form
similar crystals.
Because of this, Mendeleev grouped all the elements that were similar into groups.
These groups are the columns in the periodic table. He also arranged the groups
horizontally to take into account Dalton’s ideas about mass. The atoms of an
element get heavier as you go across each row.
How do we Write Molecules?

The chemical formula of a molecule tells us how many of each atom are in each
molecule. It also tells us how many molecules we have. The diagram below explains
this for Water Molecules, which are made of two hydrogens and one oxygen (H20).
This shows there are 3 water

3H20
molecules

This shows there are 2

Hydrogen atoms per molecule