Question

Enlist merits and demerits of Mendeleev’s periodic table.

Answer 1

Hint:Mendeleev was the first scientist who proposed the periodic table and he placed the elements according to their properties. One can explain the benefits of this periodic table and also some drawbacks about the position of certain elements in the periodic table and some properties of elements that Mendeleev’s periodic table failed to explain.

Complete answer:1) First of all we will learn some information about Mendeleev’s periodic table. The scientist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and he contributed mostly to the making of the periodic table.
2) At those times there were many periodic tables made but Mendeleev’s periodic table is the most accepted periodic table due to its efficient placement of elements.
3) Now let us discuss the merits of Mendeleev’s periodic table as below,
i) Mendeleev was the first scientist in those times for a proper arrangement of elements that describes very well chemical properties of elements.
ii) While making the periodic table Mendeleev left some gaps in periodic for those elements which were not discovered in those times and he also gave a prediction about the properties of those elements at that time.
4) Now let us discuss some demerits of the periodic table,
i) Mendeleev did not explain the position of hydrogen in the periodic table.
ii) In the periodic table there is no place for the isotopes of an element.
iii) In the periodic table the increasing order of atomic mass could not be maintained.

Note:The Mendeleev’s periodic table is totally based on the atomic mass of elements. The periodic table we use now is a modern periodic table which is based on the atomic number of elements. Noble gases were not included in Mendeleev’s periodic table as they were yet to be discovered at that time.