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The Periodic Table: A Very Short Introduction – front cover

The Periodic Table:
                A Very Short Introduction

                                  by Eric Scerri

Here, Eric Scerri looks at the trends in properties of elements that led to the construction of the periodic table, and how the deeper meaning of its structure gradually became apparent with the development of atomic theory and quantum mechanics, so that, as Scerri puts it, one science, physics, arguably came to colonize another, chemistry, although such a view is resisted by chemists.

Scerri shows that quantum mechanics is absolutely central to chemistry, as it underlies the behaviour of all of the elements and their compounds, and therefore underpins the structure of the periodic table.

Concluding with an overview of the huge variety of periodic tables that have been proposed in the print media and on the Internet, he explores the debated question of whether there is an optimal periodic table and what form it might take.

Order Eric Scerri's new book, the Periodic Table: A Very Short Introduction


Eric Scerri's new book explaining and expanding on the philosophy of the Periodic Table

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