Periodic Table of Data: Help
Using the Periodic Table
At the centre of this resource is the Periodic Table. Running the
mouse an element displays basic information on that element, plus the
value of the one special property selected using the
Visualisation menu.
Selecting the elements
Elements in the Periodic Table may be selected or unselected.
Selected elements appear in colour, whereas unselected elements are
drawn in grey. Note: when using the
List Data or Graph Data tools
only data for selected elements are displayed. Changing the selection as
described below will cause these windows to automatically update.
Elements may be selected either by clicking or by using the
Element Selection controls. Holding down the Ctrl key causes the
selection to be extended. A final method of selecting elements is to use
the Elements known in year control: enter a year and press go
to select those elements known in that year.
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Visualising trends in data
Use the Visualisation menu in the top right of the window to
select a property. The value of the selected property for selected
elements is represented as the height of a bar or as the brightness of a
colour. This allows a rapid visual appreciation of the trend of that
property across the selected elements. Data for unselected elements is
shown in grey and an arrow indicates a value greater than the current
maximum. If no data value is available then the element is not
displayed.
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Viewing the data
There are two tools for viewing tables of data.
 The
Element Data tool
This tool shows all the data for a particular element. Initially the
data for the first selected element is displayed, but this may be
changed by clicking an element in the
List Data window or by entering the name, symbol or atomic number of
the element in the Select element field and pressing go.
 The
List Data tool
This tool displays a table of data for all the currently selected
elements (changing the selection
will cause the table to update). Initially the name, symbol and atomic
number and listed in the table. Other properties can be added or removed
from the list of data by selecting a property in the Select
properties drop down menu and using the add and remove
buttons, or else using the none, all and ionisation
energies buttons.
Clicking any column heading button in the list of data will sort the
data in that column in ascending numerical order. The column heading
button will have a green border. Clicking again will sort it in
descending order and the column heading button will have a red border.
Non- numerical data will be sorted alphabetically.
Exporting the data
Data from either of these tables may be exported to another
application (such as a spreadsheet) by selecting the data in the table
and using the copy function of your browser to copy the data to the
clipboard or by using the copy to clipboard button which will
copy the whole of the current table to the clipboard. You may then open
the application and paste the data in the usual way.
See Notes on properties
for details of the data.
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 Graph
Data
This tool displays a graph for all the currently selected elements (changing
the selection will cause the graph to update). Select the property
you wish to plot on the y (vertical) axis from the Plot menu and
the property you wish to plot on the x (horizontal) axis from the
Select x axis menu and click add plot. The style of graph and
colour of points can be changed by using the Style box.
Further plots may be superimposed on the first plot by selecting a
second property for the vertical axis and clicking add plot.
However, once one property is plotted this choice is restricted to
properties which are measured in the same units as those properties
already plotted. To remove a plot, select the property you wish to
remove in the plot menu and click remove plot.
New Graph windows may be created at any time by pressing the Graph
Data button.
See Notes on properties
for details of the data.
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 Energy
Levels
To show the energies of atomic orbitals in selected elements, click Energy
Levels. Initially the first three selected elements are shown. For
lighter elements, up to three sets of energy levels can be displayed at
once but for elements with many occupied energy levels, only two can be
displayed. The zoom, freeze scale and smart scaling
functions may be used to examine particular areas of the energy level
diagrams and to facilitate comparisons between elements.
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