The Periodic Table

ONLINE PERIODIC TABLES (and a Great Song)

	Theodore Gray, co-founder of Wolfram Research, Inc. (the people who brought us Mathematica) is famous for having built a Periodic Table. By which I mean a Periodic table: it’s wooden, it’s table-sized, it has legs, and it contains actual samples of as many elements as Gray could manage to collect. His website, Theodore Gray’s Periodic Table, is illustrated with gorgeous photographs of the elements and their discoverers. Click on an element for a long photo-illustrated list of its uses with interesting explanations. (Click on the element boron, for example, and you’ll find that silly putty contains 4% boric acid, which is crucially important for bounce.) Terrific.
	At The Periodic Table of Videos from Britain’s University of Nottingham, click on an element – any element – of the Periodic Table for a short, clever, informative (and often hilarious) video, with explanations and demonstrations. Watchers learn about hydrogen while watching the detonation of a hydrogen-filled balloon; about oxygen – which, in liquid form, is blue – while explosively torching cotton wool; and about roentgenium with a quick tour of a linear accelerator. These chemists are obviously having a great time, and it’s contagious.
	From Annenberg Learner, The Periodic Table is an interactive overview of the Table, beginning with the structure of the atom and ending with a Test Your Skills quiz.
	From How Stuff Works, also see How the Periodic Table Works.
	At Scientific American’s Interactive Periodic Table, click on an element for an interesting fun fact. (Fluorine, the “tiger of chemistry,” is found in Teflon. Beryllium puts the green in emeralds.)
	At WebElements, click on an element of the periodic table for basic background information, history, the name of the element in several foreign languages, uses of the element in everyday life, physical and chemical properties of the element, and more. Similar sites with clickable Periodic Tables include Ptable  and Chemicool.
	The Chem4Kids page on the Periodic Table has an explanation of the organization of the table with color-coded diagrams showing periods and groups. Included are quizzes on the elements and on the Table itself.
	The K12 Periodic Table of Elements is an iPhone, iPad, or iPod app.
	Tom Lehrer’s The Elements is the best chemistry song ever. Trust me.
	NeoK12’s Periodic Table is a collection of short educational videos on the Periodic Table and the elements.

NOT JUST YOUR ORDINARY PERIODIC TABLE

	At the Periodic Table of Comic Books, click on an element for a list of comic book pages featuring that element. (Vintage pages that are a bit behind the times include editorial comment to bring them up to date.)
	For Tolkien fans, check out the Periodic Table of Middle-Earth.
	The Periodic Table Printmaking Project, a collaboration of 97 printmakers from seven different countries, is a gorgeously and creatively illustrated Table. Tin, for example, is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Steadfast Tin Soldier. Try making one of your own – a terrific group project!
	What didn’t make the cut? See The Periodtic Table of Rejected Element Names.
	A Lego Periodic Table! Click on a brick.
	Or check out a Periodic Table in cupcakes.