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
its is possible to specify that only data for selected elements are
used. Changing the selection as described below will cause these windows
to automatically update.
Elements may be selected in a number of ways:
- Using the all, none and invert buttons.
- Entering the atomic number, the symbol or a fragment of the name
and pressing go.
- Using the other Element Selection controls to select
elements by Group, Block or Period. Holding down the Ctrl key causes
the selection to be extended.
- Using the Elements known in year control - enter a year and
press the go button
Finally, if the Clicking an element will change item is set to
selection then clicking an element's symbol in the Periodic Table
will change its selection.
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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 Periodic Table (if the Clicking
an element will change item is set to element data), in the
List Data window or by entering
the name (or unique fragment), 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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Dot Cross Diagrams
Dot Cross Diagrams displays a window allowing such diagrams to be constructed by dragging electrons between atoms or ions. Follow the on-screen instructions for more information.
At present only ionic bonding is supported, but support for covalent bonding is under development!
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