Question

Which important property did Mendeleev use to classify the elements in his periodic table and did he stick to that?

Answer 1

Mendeleev arranged the elements in his periodic table ordered by atomic weight or mass. He arranged the elements in periods and groups in order of their increasing atomic weight. He placed the elements with similar properties in the same group.

However, he did not stick to this arrangement for long. He found out that if the elements were arranged strictly in order of their increasing atomic weights, then some elements did not fit within this scheme of classification.

Therefore, he ignored the order of atomic weights in some cases. For example, the atomic weight of iodine is lower than that of tellurium. Still Mendeleev placed tellurium (in Group VI) before iodine (in Group VII) simply because iodine’s properties are so similar tofluorine, chlorine, and bromine.

Answer 2

Mendeleev used atomic weight as the basis of classification of elements in the periodic table. He did stick to it and classify elements into groups and periods.