A New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table
The periodic table has been imprinted in the minds of so many people that it’s universally known in it’s shape and use, but researchers at Microsoft believe that they’ve found a new design for the classic infographic that conveys more data such as atom size.
So why change it? According to Mohd Abubakr from Microsoft Research in Hyderabad, the table can be improved by arranging it in circular form. He says this gives a sense of the relative size of atoms–the closer to the centre, the smaller they are–something that is missing from the current form of the table. It preserves the periods and groups that make Mendeleev’s table so useful. And by placing hydrogen and helium near the centre, Abubakr says this solves the problem of whether to put hydrogen with the halogens or alkali metals and of whther to put helium in the 2nd group or with the inert gases.
via Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: A New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table.
Tarka Wilcox
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Sean Ahern on 
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I don’t get this: “He says this gives a sense of the relative size of atoms–the closer to the centre, the smaller they are–something that is missing from the current form of the table.”
In Mendeleev’s table, the higher the row an atom is in, the lower its atomic weight (which is NOT necessarily the same thing as smaller). The nested-arc arrangement doesn’t seem to add any information.
Further where are Mendeleev’s atomic families? I don’t see them in this graphic. (Could be a resolution problem.) Compare to the arrangement in the graphic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_weight .
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@Seth Grimes If you look at his paper (PDF), towards the end he lists Advantages and states:
Properties such as ionization energy, electron affinity, electro negativity metallic character, binding energies, diagonal relationships holds good for Circular form of Periodic Table.
I still think it’s less intuitive than the old block-design..
A New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table is nice. Being a chemistry student I can say that Chemists should go for it.Properties such as ionization energy, electron affinity, electronegativity metallic character, binding energies, diagonal relationships holds good for Circular form of Periodic Table.Thanks for sharing.
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i read this post. But i don’t understand this….So will you please update on this post in detail.
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Interesting post with valuable information you got here! I am really thankful for sharing this blog and time into the stuff you post!!
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I have read about periodic table when i was in 9th standard .It was in the chemistry book and at that time, to learn periodic table was the biggest challenge for me but seeing periodic table in graphical form is very interesting .Now it will be easy to learn the periodic table.Thanks for sharing it here
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