Week 1
Topic: Our table of contents- The Periodic Table
One of the most useful things you will get out of this part of freshman chemistry is how to use a periodic table. As a practicing researcher, I use the Periodic Table every day- I've got posters of it in my lab, I've got it on my office computer's mousepad, I've got it on a t-shirt (high fashion in grad school)!!

The Periodic Table, or our "Table of Contents" as I like to say, was first put together as a way of grouping the elements in terms of their physical properties; only later was it shown that these properties all come from the number of electrons in the outer valence shell of each element. This is the basis of the Peridic Table, that elements in the same column have the same number of valence electrons, and so behave in similar ways. Learning how to use the PT will teach you how atoms bond together, the structures they form and what the resulting compounds are like. With it you can predict properties of chemical compounds-- things like melting and boiling points, solubilities, and reactivities. Whether a solid will be brittle, or if a solution will carry an electric current. All of these things- really all the characteristics that define our world- depend on the electron "glue" that holds the atoms together in different ways.

Because it is such a great way of organizing the chemistry and the properties of elements, there are many webpages about the Periodic Table. Take a few minutes to check them out.

  • A Periodic Table of the Elements from Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Element history I love old science history.
  • Chemicool Periodic Table The MIT site w/ top five requested elements
  • Real world PT My favorite: This site has each element linked sites related to that element. A good demonstration of how the PT really is our table of contents.
  • An x-ray Periodic Table gives the energy of x-ray emissions- fyi- you WON'T see this on a test!

    --PJF

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