Good! ...and flat?

Some time ago, Prof. Michelle Francl, at Bryn Mawr College in PA, mentioned her preference for a periodic table that she could tuck into her pocket, rather than a 3-D table.

So our Engineering Lab set about reversing the creation of the Alexander Arrangement concept, with some success.

I was able to send her what I referred to as the non-electronic pocket periodic table of the future (NEPPTOF), 'tacto-holo-converto' (THC), a de-dimensionalized replica of the real periodic table, the Alexander Arrangement of Elements (AAE). The THC I sent has more edges where the continuity wraps more sharply than in the 3-D AAE, but is missing all the breaks in the periodic table obvious in the common flat table, and is only several times thicker.

It can safely be handled without protective gloves, and looked at for extended periods without safety or 3-D glasses – although generally manually supported and observed only briefly, for reference purposes and showing-off.

It can be seen from back or front; manipulated simply and easily by even the untrained; is full sized at all times; and never fades or has diminished full opacity (as do the earlier attempts, i.e.; Star Wars). Amazingly, the molecular properties of the unit have been able to be retained, and are an exact simulation of contemporary card stock!

All these features except the multi-dimensional character of the AAE and the Pen/Pencil Caddy Adaptation are carried over from the original DeskTopper (DT).

My group's creative flattening sequence began with the constructed 'tacto-holo-nonconverto' (THNC) AAE DT, and step-by-step precisely reduced it carefully to two dimensions – road-kill style – (much as Mendeleev, inadvertently, I would like to assume, squashed the original periodic table, the “telluric screw” of Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois [ my long-named buddy; 'Alexe' ], who’s table preceded Dmitri's by a decade).

But seriously, now, a pocket periodic table, once the learning is done, is surely a handier thing than the full 3-D model, isn't it?

The steps of looking at all the elements can be seen at right -
achieved by folding the rear/rightmost part around to the back.