Crash course Periodic Table Flashcards
What is Mendelev’s background?
Mendelev’s family were destitute in Russia after a family of 10 brothers lost their father. The mother tries to revive a glass making factory in town only to have that burn down a year later. However since the mother say the child’s potential she decides to ride on horseback through the Ural Mountains for 1200 miles. She arrives with the child to Moscow university but is rejected. So they ride another 400 miles to St Petersburg. The child is accepted and the mother promptly dies.
What was the prevailing knowledge on elements at the time of Mendelev?
About 80 Elements are known as well as their Atomic weights. They are generally sorted in their weight order.
What does Mendelev’s realise about the relationship of the known elements?
The known elements seemed to possess similar properties periodically. (He thought it was every 7 elements. We now know its 8 due to the Noble Gases) However as the atoms get heavier there are large gaps in the periodicity. He eventually realises that there are gaps in the table and there must be undiscovered elements. He even predicts the properties of those undiscovered elements.
What are some of the basic groups that you find on the Periodic table?
Alkali Metals (Extreemely reactive) Alkaline earth metals (reactive but not as reactive as alkaline metals) Transition metals (Maleable, can be bent and formed and hammered into sheets) Halogens (very reactive as gases) Metals, Metaloids, gases, no metals Lanthanides Actinides Noble Gases
What was Mendelev’s views on religion
He thought that religion was a false path to the unknowable nature of God and that may have been part of his fascination with the periodicity of elements
