Small history of elements classification


35 3.5
Grade this page:

Last modified on: July 1st 2021

democrite Democrite, thinker of the Vth century BC, taking back to his master Leucippe talks, suggest an atomic theory: Matter is made from non-divisible particles ("atomos" in greek).
empedocle In the IVth century BC, Empedocle, contrarily to Democrite talks suggest this theory: Universe is made from four elements :
  • Earth
  • Water
  • Air
  • Fire
aristote At the same periode, Aristote strength the theory by adding four qualitys to the four elements: cold, dry, hot, wet.

Those qualitys in couple form elements, who form the universe.

This theory reach to explain some freaks of nature.

Short model of aristote
23 century later...
daltonIn 1808, John Dalton, chemist and physician, rewrite and make deeper atomic theory of democrite:

  • Matter is made of infinitely small and non divisible particles called atoms.
  • All atoms of a same element are identicals, same proprerty and mass.
mendeleiev In 1869 Dimitri Ivanovitch Mendeleïev, chemistry professor in St-Petersburg classify elements according to their propertys.

Writing a chemistry book, he discover that sorting elements by their atomic mass, a cyclic trend of their propertys appear several times.

First table of mendeleiev

First Mendeleïev table

Mendeleïev make his table so that periodicity appear clearly, but to respect his periodicity law in which he trust, he must sometimes modify order and let some cells empty.

He was sure that those missing elements will be finally discovered, and so predict the properys of those futur elements (according to the adjacents cells in the table): eka-aluminium, eka-bore and eka-silicium.

Between 1875 and 1886, those three elements (gallium, scandium and germanium) where discovered. Each of them had the property predicted by Mendeleïev.

Back to top of page

Other pages you may also like
Webmaster tools
Webmaster tools
Page for webmasters and bloggers who wish to add tools or widgets (links, feeds, images...) to their own sites.
214K3.5 July 1st 2021
The most viewed...
The most viewed...
The most viewed...
102K4.3 July 1st 2021
Website technical evolution
Website technical evolution
Site updates, list of new additions by date .
188K3.6 July 1st 2021
Random menu...
Random menu...
A complete menu with a starter, main course and dessert, generated at random, to modify as you choose.
773K3.8 April 30th 2022
Subscriber's recipes
Subscriber's recipes
This list includes the recipes which were submitted by subscribers of ez-cooking.com. Those recipes, under the responsibility of their author, are not always in the same format of the site, one photo by each step, but they are the result of the work of passionate womens and mens, thank you to them...
155K3.4 July 1st 2021
Post your comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page