Unfolding the Periodic Table

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Ben McFarland

Published:

2016

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Our starting point is not hidden, nor is it far off. It is not an extreme place like Mono Lake or Freswick Castle, but it is a central concept expressed on a single page. The periodic table is the center of chemistry, and therefore of this book. You can spot it at a distance from its vaguely cathedral-like shape. You can see the chemical symbols that it contains on magnets and T-shirts and restaurant signs. Its regular columns are not quite symmetric, but that is because it has been twisted out of its natural shape by the contingencies of history. Rearrange it just a little and a simple mathematical pattern appears. To see this pattern, imagine that the periodic table is made out of beads on an abacus, arranged in the familiar U shape. Then push all the beads to the left: … Row 1 = H- He Row 2 = Li- Be- B- C- N- O- F- Ne Row 3 = Na- Mg- Al- Si- P- S- Cl- Ar Row 4 = K- Ca- Sc- Ti- V- Cr- Mn- Fe- Co- Ni- Cu- Zn- Ga- Ge- As- Se- Br- Kr Row 5 = Rb- Sr- Y- Zr- Nb- Mo- Tc- Ru- Rh- Pd- Ag- Cd- In- Sn- Sb- Te- I- Xe … By row, there are 2, 8, 8, 18, and 18 elements. The pattern continues in the rows below, but it is obscured by the fact that on most tables 14 elements have been moved out of the sixth and seventh rows. On the table here I have put them where they belong. These rows have 32 elements each. This can be simplified even more. The rows increase, first by 2, then by 6 more (2 + 6 = 8), then by 10 more (2 + 6 + 10 = 18), then by 14 (2 + 6 + 10 + 18 = 32). The series 2, 6, 1…

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