Question

State the importance of Newlands' law of octaves

Answer 1

The journey to our current periodic table was a long and arduous one. Many scientists and chemists tried to attempt to classify the elements in a logical way.

1. One of them is John Newlands, a British chemist, who proposed a classification of the 62 known elements.
2. Newlands observed recurring trends in the physical properties of the elements at recurring intervals of multiples of eight in order of mass number; based on this observation, he produced an eight-group classification of these elements. Each group displayed a similar progression, which Newlands compared to the progression of notes within a musical scale.
3. Newland's law of octaves was the first to be logically based on atomic weight, that is, it connects the properties of elements to their atomic masses.
4. For the lighter elements, this system worked much better. Lithium, sodium, and potassium are a few examples. These are some of the advantages of the law of octaves.