Variation of atomic

volumes
ELEM ENT S AND CO M PO UNDS
Periodicity
G Asearly asthe Mi ddle Ages, sci enti sts
recogni zed that elementscould be
di fferenti ated by thei r properti esand
that these physi cal and chemi cal
properti eswere peri odi c.
G The German chemi st Lothar Meyer
demonstrated periodicityby plotti ng
atomic volumesagai nst atomi c
wei ghts( the term atomic massi snow
used) .
G Thi speri odi ci ty i sbetter shown by
plotti ng atomi c volumesagai nst
atomic number.
G You can see peri odi ci ty most clearly by
the pattern between potassi um ( b)
and rubi di um ( c) , and between
rubi di um ( c) and cesi um ( d) i n the
di agram. These correspond to the
changi ng valuesacrossperi od 4 and
peri od 5, respecti vely.
atomic mass
atomic number
atomic volume
periodicity
Key words
34
A
t
o
m
i
c
v
o
l
u
m
e
c
m
3
m
o
l

1
6 0
9 0
Atomic number
5 0
3 0
2 0
0
0 8 0 7 0 6 0 5 0 4 0 3 0 2 0 1 0
a
b
d
c
e
4 0
7 0
1 0
a H e li u m
b P o ta ssi u m
c R u b i d i u m
d C e si u m
e R a d o n

D
i
a
g
r
a
m
V
i
s
u
a
l
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
L
t
d
.