Question: Are you familiar with musical notes?
Answer: In the Indian system of music, there are seven musical notes in a scale – sa, re ga, ma, pa, da, ni. In the west, they use the notations – do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. Naturally, there must be some repetition on notes. Every eighth note is similar to the first one and it is the first note of the next scale.
Question: Do you know what Mendeleev said about the melting point of eka Al?
Answer: ‘If I hold it in my hand, it will melt’. The melting point of Ga is 30.2°C and our body temperature is 37°C.
Question: How is Mendeleev honoured?
Answer: At the time when Mendeleev introduced his periodic table even electrons were not discovered. Even then the periodic table was able to provide a scientific base for the study of chemistry of elements. In his honour the 101th element was
named Mendelevium.
Question: Do you know how are the names of certain families of periodic table derived?
Answer: Alkali metal family: Aliquili = Plant ashes, Na, K etc.. were obtained from plant ash, Group I A elements are called Alkali metals family.
Chalcogen family: Chalcogenous = Ore product, as the elements in group 16 (VI A) form ores with metals. They are called as chalcogenous family.
Halogen family: Halos = Sea salt, Genus = Produced. As most of the elements in Group 17 (VII A) are obtained from nature as sea salt. They are called as halogen family.
Noble gases: As the elements of group 18 (VIII A) are chemically least active. They are called as noble gases. There outer shell electronic configuration are basis for octet rule.