• Question: If all the undiscovered elements outnumber the empty spaces on The Periodic Table, what would you do?

    Asked by igloo23 to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by howyilms1.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Well, the periodic table was created way before all the elements in it were discovered.

      It’s really a way of showing fundamental properties of elements.

      But there’s already extra sections where new elements didn’t fit – the lanthanides and actinides which are the box you sometimes see at the bottom.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      I think it would be great to see a new periodic table drawn that made everything fit in. It would be like one of those really frustrating 3D puzzles!

      If we thought about all the different ways you can build an element, you should be able to draw a periodic table (maybe in 3D) that had space for all the discovered and undiscovered ones, so you can fill them in when you find them.

      Some people have already tried to fit the lanthanides and actinides in, but it looks really weird!
      http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/35_pt/pt_database.php?PT_id=33

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      Personally I’m not that tied to the periodic table, but I bet the people who are would have great fun figuring out a new ways to display all the elements. I think it does have room for quite a lot of expansion though….

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