New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table

KentuckyFC writes "The great power of Mendeleev's periodic table was that it allowed him to predict the properties of undiscovered elements. But can this arrangement be improved? Two new envisionings of the periodic table attempt to do just that. The first uses a new graphical representation that shows the relative sizes of atoms as well as their groups and periods. The other uses the same kind of group theoretical approach that particle physicists developed to classify particles by their symmetries (abstract). That helped particle physicists predict the existence of new particles, but may have limited utility for chemists who seem to have discovered (or predicted) all of the elements they need already."

Comments

"this gives a sense of the relative size of atoms"

[Joce640k]

Um.... that's the one thing it totally *fails* to do. It's LESS clear on that one than the current "the ones at the bottom are bigger".

The guy's obviously an idiot with too much time on his hands.

Pie chart

[jandersen]

Why is this news? Some bloke at Microsoft has made a circular version of the periodic table in, presumably, Windows-colours. I can't imagine that a great deal of thought or effort has gone into doing this, and none of it adds anything to our understanding of anything. It does, of course, generate a bit of attention around Microsoft, which is all the purpose there is to publishing this nonsense.