The argument, as I understand it, is that the format is the important thing. The format of the Periodic Table is supposed to tell you things about the various elements, with meaning attached both to the row and the column of the element.
Shimrod
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It's not really about the color, and what you call a 'slight' formatting issue really isn't slight: the formatting touches on one of the fundamental concepts of the periodic table. Namely, It represents that the elements in one group (column) have similar characteristics (e.g. electron configurations, reactivity in a lot of cases) to the others elements of that period. Take period 18, the noble gasses, for example. Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Radon are similar in that under most conditions they don't react with anything. It is also no coincidence that carbon and silicon both form bonds to two oxygen atoms to form CO2 and SiO2.
The elements in a group aren't completely identical, there are some differences, for example in scale.
So the fundamental difference between those two tables is that in one Lanthanum and Actinium are similar to Scandium and Strontium, while in the other Lutetium and Lawrencium are.
Align center as in this?
*Shudders*
The horror...
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blast flame
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Centering like that half defeats the purpose of the periodic table. You can't intuitively see that sodium and potassium, for instance, have similar properties because they're not aligned.
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This thing is an abomination.Align center as in this?
*Shudders*
The horror...
Since the actinides and lanthanides all behave very similarly, it's probaly better to sort them after their physicalr properties, like their atomic radii.
If you look at the table @Vorpal posted, Lu and Lr fit better into the empty d-block spots than La and Ac, since their properties fit better with the behaviour of the other d-block columns.
Half the purpose? It is the entire purpose. Hence "Periodic" table of the elements.
theorion
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I have that next semester. Joy.
GhostStalker
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I took General Chemistry as a prereq for my Math degree. You need to take an intro lab science course for two semesters and I chose Chemistry since back when I was still an Engineering major, I realized that I despise Physics after I all but bombed that class when i took it.
Probably didn't help that my introduction to Physics in high school was advertised as a research/advanced topics class in the vein of my Advanced Topics Bio and Research Chem classes which I passed with no major problems (except having to brace for crunch time as the end of the semester approached and I had to finish my labs and research projects), but then I was thrown into the deep end when I found out that class was actually AP Physics B instead, taught by the VP of the Physics department... Yeah, that didn't work out too well for me...
Had no real problems with General Chem when I took it, and reading this thread makes me remember a lot of it too, so I kinda know what you're talking about here... A lot of my classmates there moved on to Organic, but I'm glad I didn't have to, since it wasn't necessary for my major. Just Advanced Calculus and Abstract Algebra and other higher level math stuff for me instead...
:suicide: So many fucking proofs... Calculus is easy for me, like if you just give me an expression or something to evaluate. But proofs are a bitch and a half...
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