Classifying the Elements

Many more recent elements had yet to be discovered but Mendeleev knew to leave gaps for them. Our modern Periodic Table looks more like this:

Our knowledge of the elements will help us to place elements into groups with similar properties.

This can be done in many ways. We could group them as:

1. Metals and Non-metals

2. Solids, Liquid and Gases

3. Natural or Man-made

Metals and Non-metals

The non-metals on the Periodic Table are found on the right of the Table side (except for Hydrogen) and are shaded in orange below. The elements are in red are metals.

The above image is from: https://igcse-chemistry-2017.blogspot.com/2017/07/121-identify-element-as-metal-or-non.html

Solids, Liquids and Gases

Elements can also be classified as solids, liquids and gases and this website below will give you some examples:

Solids, Liquids and Gases on the Periodic Table

Natural or Man-made elements

Many of the larger and more recently discovered elements found towards the bottom of the Periodic Table do not occur naturally and are made by scientists.

The man-made elements are shown in purple on this website

Groups and Periods

The Periodic Table is also arranged in columns known as groups and rows known as periods as shown below.

Next section: The Structure of the Atom