I did chemistry in college and encountered a few alternate tables, yeah. I had a physics major classmate who used some kind of 3D model I didn't recognize and that seemed cool. The alternate model I liked the most was the Benfey table.
Most alternate periodic tables have the massive problem of failing to intuitively reference three things at once: atomic number, valency, and molecular weight. Those are the most commonly referenced properties in chemistry and physics, so that's probably why the standard Mendeleev table is still around. It's easiest to look up a number if it's arranged in rows and columns. Every alternate model table I've seen has to sacrifice something. Like the Benfey table is better at showing valency, and it's the only table I've seen that shows hydrogen is actually similar to a halogen rather than sitting above the alkali metals. Benfey's table groups together certain properties in a better way than the Mendeleev table, but yeah try looking up molecular weight in a spiral.
The problem with saying it's an aribtrary grouping is that the arrangement is based off of the properties of elements that have the most effect on the world. If an alien existed at a similar scale to us, they would weight those factors identically.
As you touched on, all of the (useful) alternative periodic tables are essentially derivatives of tge mendeleev table.
there's a good scifi novel from 1980, Dragon's Egg by author and physicist Robert L. Forward. It's about contact between humans and a species of aliens, the cheela, who live on the surface of a neutron star. They're the size of a sesame seed and they live at an accelerated pace, described at around one million times faster than humans. The entire contact between cheela and humans takes place over 23 hours of human time, which is thousands of years in cheela time.
Because they live on a neutron star with much higher gravity than earth and at hotter temperatures, it's mentioned briefly they have a different conception of chemistry that's more centered on attributes like strong nuclear force and gravity waves rather than how we focus on atomic mass and electromagnetism.
I did chemistry in college and encountered a few alternate tables, yeah. I had a physics major classmate who used some kind of 3D model I didn't recognize and that seemed cool. The alternate model I liked the most was the Benfey table.
Most alternate periodic tables have the massive problem of failing to intuitively reference three things at once: atomic number, valency, and molecular weight. Those are the most commonly referenced properties in chemistry and physics, so that's probably why the standard Mendeleev table is still around. It's easiest to look up a number if it's arranged in rows and columns. Every alternate model table I've seen has to sacrifice something. Like the Benfey table is better at showing valency, and it's the only table I've seen that shows hydrogen is actually similar to a halogen rather than sitting above the alkali metals. Benfey's table groups together certain properties in a better way than the Mendeleev table, but yeah try looking up molecular weight in a spiral.
The problem with saying it's an aribtrary grouping is that the arrangement is based off of the properties of elements that have the most effect on the world. If an alien existed at a similar scale to us, they would weight those factors identically.
As you touched on, all of the (useful) alternative periodic tables are essentially derivatives of tge mendeleev table.
there's a good scifi novel from 1980, Dragon's Egg by author and physicist Robert L. Forward. It's about contact between humans and a species of aliens, the cheela, who live on the surface of a neutron star. They're the size of a sesame seed and they live at an accelerated pace, described at around one million times faster than humans. The entire contact between cheela and humans takes place over 23 hours of human time, which is thousands of years in cheela time.
Because they live on a neutron star with much higher gravity than earth and at hotter temperatures, it's mentioned briefly they have a different conception of chemistry that's more centered on attributes like strong nuclear force and gravity waves rather than how we focus on atomic mass and electromagnetism.
It's a cool book you might like
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