Dmitri Mendeleev

Periodic Table

On this date in 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society. Earlier, Mendeleev had developed his periodic law, stating that the property of an element is the periodic function of the elements' atomic mass. He referred to the tendency of those chemical elements with similar properties to recur at regular intervals as periodicity. Mendeleev's table arranged the elements in ascending order of their atomic mass, while leaving gaps for the elements that he predicted would be discovered at a later date.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, March 6, 2009