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What is the Periodic Table Showing? Periodicity

The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables

There are thousands of periodic tables in web space, but this is the only comprehensive database of periodic tables & periodic system formulations. If you know of an interesting periodic table that is missing, please contact the database curator: Mark R. Leach Ph.D. The database holds information on periodic tables, the discovery of the elements, the elucidation of atomic weights and the discovery of atomic structure (and much, much more).

   Use the drop menus or search box (below) to Select or Search the 1400 entries in the database: 

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The 10 most recent entries to the database:

1927   Fifth Solvay Conference on Physics
1926   Born Rule
1926   Schrödinger Wave Equation
1925   Heisenberg’s Matrix Mechanics and the Uncertainty Principle
1925   Pauli and The Exclusion Principle
1924   de Broglie and Wave–Particle Duality
1916   Sommerfeld and the Azimuthal and Magnetic Quantum Numbers
1913   The Bohr Atom
1911   Rutherford and the Geiger–Marsden Gold Leaf Scattering Experiments
1904   Thomson and the Plum Pudding Model of the Atom


Year:  1927 PT id = 1377, Type = structure

Fifth Solvay Conference on Physics

Wikipedia:

"The most famous conference was the fifth Solvay Conference on Physics, which was held from 24 to 29 October 1927. The subject was Electrons and Photons and the world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. The leading figures were Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. Seventeen of the 29 attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners, including Marie Sk?odowska-Curie who, alone among them, had won Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific disciplines. The anti-German prejudice that had prevented Einstein and others from attending the Solvay conferences held after the First World War had melted away. Essentially all of those names who had contributed to the recent development of the quantum theory were at this Solvay Conference, including Bohr, Born, de Broglie, Dirac, Heisenberg, Pauli, Planck, Lorentz, Compton, Ehrenfest, and Schrödinger. Heisenberg commented:

"Through the possibility of exchange between the representatives of different lines of research, this conference has contributed extraordinarily to the clarification of the physical foundations of the quantum theory. It forms, so to speak, the outward completion of the quantum theory."

"The photo taken of this conference's participants is sometimes entitled 'The Most Intelligent Photo Ever Taken', for its depiction of the world's leading physicists gathered together in one shot."

A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, E. Herzen, Th. De Donder, E. Schrödinger, J.E. Verschaffelt, W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. Brillouin;
P. Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L. Bragg, H.A. Kramers, P.A.M. Dirac, A.H. Compton, L. de Broglie, M. Born, N. Bohr;
I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Sklodowska-Curie, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, P. Langevin, Ch. E. Guye, C.T.R. Wilson, O.W. Richardson
Fifth conference participants, 1927. Institut International de Physique Solvay in Leopold Park.

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Year:  1926 PT id = 1376, Type = structure

Born Rule

Born, M. Zur Quantenmechanik der Stoßvorgänge. Zeitschrift für Physik, 37, 863–867 (1926).

Wikipedia:

"Max Born was a German–British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. He shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Walther Bothe 'for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction.'

"The Born rule is a postulate of quantum mechanics that gives the probability that a measurement of a quantum system will yield a given result. In one commonly used application, it states that the probability density for finding a particle at a given position is proportional to the square of the amplitude of the system's wavefunction at that position. So is the wave function is ψ, the probability of finding the electron is |ψ|2."

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Year:  1926 PT id = 1375, Type = structure

Schrödinger Wave Equation

Schrödinger, E. Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem (Quantization as an eigenvalue problem) (Parts I–IV). Annalen der Physik, 79, 361–376; 489–527; 734–756; 80, 437–490 (1926).

Wikipedia:

"Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian–Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognised for devising the Schrödinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time."

"A special case of the Schrödinger equation is the position-space Schrödinger equation for a single nonrelativistic particle in one dimension:

"The ψ is a wave function, a function that assigns a complex number to each point x at each time t. The parameter m is the mass of the particle, and V(x,t) is the potential energy function that represents the environment in which the particle exists. The constant i is the imaginary unit, and ħ is the reduced Planck constant, which has units of action (energy multiplied by time).

"Schrödinger coined the term 'quantum entanglement' in 1935. Schrödinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Paul Dirac 'for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.''

"The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system. Its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of quantum mechanics. Conceptually, the Schrödinger equation is the quantum counterpart of Newton's second law in classical mechanics. Given a set of known initial conditions, Newton's second law makes a mathematical prediction as to what path a given physical system will take over time. The Schrödinger equation gives the evolution over time of the wave function, the quantum-mechanical characterisation of an isolated physical system. The equation was postulated by Schrödinger based on a postulate of Louis de Broglie that all matter has an associated matter wave. The equation predicted bound states of the atom in agreement with experimental observations."

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Year:  1925 PT id = 1374, Type = structure

Heisenberg’s Matrix Mechanics and the Uncertainty Principle

Heisenberg, W. Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen. (On the quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships.) Zeitschrift für Physik, 33, 879–893 (1925); Heisenberg, W. Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik. (On the intuitive content of quantum-theoretical kinematics and mechanics. "The Uncertainty Principle") Zeitschrift für Physik, 43, 172–198 (1927).

Wikipedia:

"Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg published his Umdeutung paper in 1925, a major reinterpretation of old quantum theory. In the subsequent series of papers with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, during the same year, his matrix formulation of quantum mechanics was substantially elaborated. He is also known for the uncertainty principle, which he published in 1927. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 'for the creation of quantum mechanics'."

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Year:  1925 PT id = 1373, Type = structure

Pauli and The Exclusion Principle

Pauli, W. Über den Zusammenhang des Abschlusses der Elektronengruppen im Atom mit der Komplexstruktur der Spektren. Zeitschrift für Physik, 31, 765–783 (1925).

Wikipedia:

"Wolfgang Pauli was an Austrian–Swiss theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics 'for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle'. The discovery involved spin theory.

"The Pauli exclusion principle (German: Pauli-Ausschlussprinzip) states that two or more identical particles with half-integer spins (i.e. fermions) cannot simultaneously occupy the same quantum state within a system that obeys the laws of quantum mechanics. This principle was formulated by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925 for electrons, and later extended to all fermions with his spin–statistics theorem of 1940.

"In the case of electrons in atoms, the exclusion principle can be stated as follows: in a poly-electron atom it is impossible for any two electrons to have the same two values of all four of their quantum numbers, which are: n, the principal quantum number; , the azimuthal quantum number; m, the magnetic quantum number; and ms, the spin quantum number.

"If two electrons reside in the same orbital, then their values of n, , and m are equal. In that case, the two values of ms (spin) pair must be different. Since the only two possible values for the spin projection ms are +1/2 and –1/2, it follows that one electron must have ms = +1/2 and one ms = –1/2.

"To preserve the conservation of energy in beta decay, Pauli proposed the existence of a small neutral particle, dubbed the neutrino by Enrico Fermi, in 1930. Neutrinos were first detected in 1956. "

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Year:  1924 PT id = 1372, Type = structure

de Broglie and Wave–Particle Duality

de Broglie, L. Recherches sur la théorie des quanta. Annales de Physique, 3, 22–128 (1925). (Doctoral thesis, submitted 1924)

Wikipedia:

"Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 Ph.D. thesis, de Broglie postulated the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave properties.

"This concept, now known as the de Broglie hypothesis, an example of wave–particle duality, and forms a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics. In 1929, de Broglie won the Nobel Prize in Physics, after the wave-like behaviour of matter was experimentally confirmed in 1927."

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Year:  1916 PT id = 1371, Type = structure

Sommerfeld and the Azimuthal and Magnetic Quantum Numbers

Sommerfeld, A. Zur Quantentheorie der Spektrallinien. Annalen der Physik, 51, 1–94 (1916).

Wikipedia:

"Arnold Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in both atomic and quantum physics. He also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretical quantum physics.

"Sommerfeld introduced the second (azimuthal) and the third (magnetic) quantum numbers ℓ and m. (He also introduced the fine-structure constant and pioneered X-ray wave theory.)

"In quantum mechanics, the azimuthal quantum number ℓ is a quantum number for an atomic orbital that determines its orbital angular momentum and describes aspects of the angular shape of the orbital. The azimuthal quantum number is the second of a set of quantum numbers that describe the unique quantum state of an electron (the others being the principal quantum number n, the magnetic quantum number, m, and the spin quantum number ms).

"Seven of Sommerfeld's doctoral students and postdoctoral supervisees: Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Peter Debye, Hans Bethe, Linus Pauling, Isidor I. Rabi and Max von Laue went on to win Nobel Prizes in theoretical physics or chemistry. He also supervised at least 30 other famous physicists and chemists."

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Year:  1913 PT id = 1370, Type = structure

The Bohr Atom

Bohr, N. On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules (Parts I–III). Philosophical Magazine, 26, 1–25; 476–502; 857–875 (1913).

Wikipedia:

"In the Bohr model (or the Rutherford–Bohr model) of the hydrogen atom (Z = 1), the negatively charged electron confined to an atomic shell encircles a small, positively charged atomic nucleus. When an electron jumps between orbits, is accompanied by an emitted or absorbed amount of electromagnetic energy (where E = ). The orbits in which the electron may travel are shown as grey circles; their radius increases as n2, where n is the principal quantum number. The 3 ? 2 transition produces the first line of the Balmer series, and for hydrogen (Z = 1) it results in a photon of wavelength 656 nm (red light).

"The Bohr atom consists of a small, dense atomic nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. It is analogous to the structure of the Solar System, but with attraction provided by electrostatic force rather than gravity, and with the electron energies quantised (assuming only discrete values). The Bohr model incorporated some early quantum concepts. Developed from 1911 to 1918 by Niels Bohr and building on Ernest Rutherford's discovery of the atom's nucleus, the model supplanted the plum pudding model of J. J. Thomson only to be replaced by the quantum atomic model in the 1920s.

"The Bohr model's key success lies in explaining the Rydberg formula for hydrogen's spectral emission lines. While the Rydberg formula had been known experimentally, it did not gain a theoretical basis until the Bohr model was introduced. Not only did the Bohr model explain the reasons for the structure of the Rydberg formula, it also provided a justification for the fundamental physical constants that make up the formula's empirical results."

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Year:  1911 PT id = 1369, Type = structure

Rutherford and the Geiger–Marsden Gold Leaf Scattering Experiments

Geiger, H., & Marsden, E. On a Diffuse Reflection of the ?-Particles. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 82, 495–500 (1909) and Rutherford, E. The Scattering of ? and ? Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom. Philosophical Magazine, 21, 669–688 (1911).

Wikipedia:

"The Rutherford scattering experiments were performed between 1906 and 1913 by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under the direction of Ernest Rutherford at the Physical Laboratories of the University of Manchester.

"Experiments showed that every atom had a nucleus where all its positive charge and most of its mass is concentrated. This was deduced this after measuring how a beam of alpha particles is scattered when it strikes gold leaf (thin gold foil)."

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Year:  1904 PT id = 1368, Type = structure

Thomson and the Plum Pudding Model of the Atom

Thomson, J. J. On the Structure of the Atom. Philosophical Magazine, 7, 237–265 (1904). https://zenodo.org/records/1430726

Wikipedia:

"The view that the atoms of the elements consist of a number of negatively electrified corpuscles enclosed in a sphere of uniform positive electrification, suggests, among other interesting mathematical problems, the one discussed in this paper, that of the motion of a ring of n negatively electrified particles placed inside a uniformly electrified sphere."


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What is the Periodic Table Showing? Periodicity

© Mark R. Leach Ph.D. 1999 –


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