The periodic table is a structured representation of all known chemical elements, organized to reflect their properties and relationships. Typically, elements are arranged by rows (periods, which indicate the number of electron shells in the atoms) and columns (families, which group elements with similar chemical properties based on the number of electrons in their outer shell). Elements are also grouped by categories—such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, halogens, and noble gases—and displayed by atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus) and atomic mass (the mass of an atom of each element). I first encountered the periodic table back in 9th grade, but Professor Sheehan’s 1976 adaptation, which considers the actual abundance of elements on Earth, sparked my interest all over again. It’s amazing how a well-designed visual—a small tweak to an established format—can reignite curiosity and convey a complex reality in a single image. The periodic table of elements scaled to show the actual abundance of the elements on Earth by Prof. Wm. F. Sheehan in 1976. Source: https://beyondeuclid.substack.com/
- Pedro
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