Periodic Table Changes

Source - XKCD

See, it's funny because the periodic table isn't the shape it is because of any sort of design sense. There are all sorts of details that would look or seem better if they were changed, but they can't be changed because they're based on properties, electron configurations, and property similarities - not on what would look neat.

See, the periodic table is appropriately periodic meaning there's a repeating pattern in its layout. In this case there's a repeating pattern in the properties of the elements when the elements are placed in order by their atomic number. Lithium is similar to sodium which is similar to potassium and on down with rubidium, cesium, and francium. With those similarities noticed, the elements were placed in columns with a new row (or period) starting every time those properties repeated.

It would be nice to see helium moved above beryllium, and there are some reasons why it maybe should be moved over there, but there are way more reasons why it belongs in column 18 with the noble gases.

Admittedly, changing the element symbols (iron = Fe but maybe should be I...silver = Ag but maybe should be Sv, and so on) is within the powers of a bunch of chemists if they really wanted to do it, but just moving the inner transition metals so they don't look dorky down at the bottom of the table isn't within the powers of those same chemists because it would require those elements to have different properties and different electron configurations. Those aren't things chemists have the power to change.

Maybe next week I'll rant about all the non-periodic periodic tables that I get shown in the course of my job.