Types of periodic tables

[2][n 1] On spiral periodic tables, "Mendeleev...steadfastly refused to depict the system as [such]...His objection was that he could not express this function mathematically.

To a lesser extent, the more involved two-dimensional arrangements do little toward solving the difficulty, and essentially the only suggestions as to modifications which are truly constructive are those centering in reflection of electronic configurations.

For convenience, periodic tables may be typified as either: 1. short; 2. triangular; 3. medium; 4. long; 5. continuous (circular, spiral, lemniscate, or helical); 6. folding; or 7. spatial.

John Gladstone, a fellow chemist, objected on the basis that Newlands's table presumed no elements remained to be discovered.

Fellow English chemist Carey Foster humorously inquired of Newlands whether he had ever examined the elements according to the order of their initial letters.

Foster believed that any arrangement would present occasional coincidences, but he condemned one which placed so far apart manganese and chromium, or iron from nickel and cobalt.

[28] Advantages of this form are its aesthetic appeal, and relatively compact size; disadvantages are its width, the fact that it is harder to draw, and interpreting certain periodic trends or relationships may be more challenging compared to the traditional rectangular format.

The popularity of this form is thought to be a result of it having a good balance of features in terms of ease of construction and size, and its depiction of atomic order and periodic trends.

[43] Deming's version of a medium table, which appeared in the first edition of his 1923 textbook "General Chemistry: An Elementary Survey Emphasizing Industrial Applications of Fundamental Principles", has been credited with popularizing the 18-column form.

[44][n 6] LeRoy[45] referred to Deming's table, "this...being better known as the 'eighteen columns'-form" as representing "a very marked improvement over the original Mendeleef type as far as presentation to beginning classes is concerned."

In the first image in this section, of a so-called left step table: The elements remain positioned in order of atomic number (Z).

That being said it shows a reasonable correspondence with the Madelung energy ordering rule this being a notional sequence in which the electron shells of the neutral atoms in their ground states are filled.

The French geologist Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois was the first person to make use of atomic weights to produce a classification of periodicity.

While they offer unique advantages, their complexity and customization requirements make them more suitable for specialized research, advanced education, or specific areas of study where a deeper understanding of multidimensional relationships is desired.

Theodor Benfey's arrangement is an example of a continuous (spiral) table. First published in 1964, it explicitly showed the location of lanthanides and actinides . The elements form a two-dimensional spiral, starting from hydrogen, and folding their way around two peninsulas, the transition metals, and lanthanides and actinides. A superactinide peninsula is already slotted in. [ 1 ]
Newlands's 1866 table of octaves
Mendeleev's 1871 periodic table
Modern form of a short eight-group periodic table
A rendering of Bayley's periodic table of 1882 [ 25 ]
A redrawn version of Kapustinsky's triangular or step pyramid periodic table (1953). [ 26 ] Period 0 includes the electron and neutron. Each period repeats once. Two kinds of bilateral symmetry are present: shape; and metals and nonmetals in each half.
Deming's periodic table of 1923 [ 40 ]
A modern periodic table colour-coded to show some common or more commonly used names for sets of elements. The categories and their boundaries differ somewhat between sources. [ 41 ] Lutetium and lawrencium in group 3 are also transition metals. [ 42 ]
Left step periodic table with 33rd shadow column showing that the periods wrap around
The blocks in this long table follow the conventional order: s-, f-, d- and p-
A circular periodic table
A continuous two-dimensional periodic pyramid [ 71 ]
Crookes's lemniscate (figure eight) periodic table of 1898 [ 72 ]
A helical table
McCutchon's periodic table of 1950, with two double-sided flaps attached. The top flap shows the first half of the f-block. The flap under that shows the first half of the d- block. [ 85 ]
A periodic table having the appearance of a multi-layered cake. There are eight wooden layers that sit on top of one another and can be rotated. Layers are divided into chemical elements with the engraved element name and atomic number. [ 92 ]
This table, which is a modernised version of von Bichowsky's table of 1918, [ 110 ] has 24 columns and 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 groups. Group 8 forms a connecting link or transitional zone between groups 7 and 1.