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Having just power-watched "Breaking Bad," I asked myself, 'Is there anything in this world that you are truly ignorant about, that is more "basic and fundamental" to life, than The Periodic Table?' I couldn't think of anything. So I'm going to teach it to myself, and post about it here as I learn it - I figure that if I don't understand it, then others may not either. It's pretty remarkable, actually - this giant chart had been posted up on the wall of probably dozens of classes that I've taken during my lifetime, and nobody ever really explained it to me (or, maybe they did, and I just forgot). So, if you follow this thread, you'll eventually understand The Periodic Table, because I'm going to explain everything about it, as I learn it. I'll be using the approach that, "Nothing is too simple to put into writing," although I'm going to assume things such as, "people know the difference between atoms and molecules," that "people understand that atoms are comprised of protons, neutrons, and electrons" (without necessarily understanding exactly what they are, or where they reside), etc. I have no doubt that an intelligent eighth-grader could explain this whole thing to anyone in ten minutes, but I'm going to do it step-by-step, little-by-little, so I don't overwhelm people with information. Writing things down will also help me to store them in my long-term memory, so presenting this little tutorial will benefit me as well. If Ken Burns can do it with The Civil War, then hopefully I can do it with The Periodic Table. This might take a year (as it's a "spare-time project"), but it will hopefully get done, and if you don't understand everything about it when I'm finished, then that means I'm a failure as a communicator. Kind of sad that if people remembered every single thing they were taught through middle school, they'd be more educated than 99.99% of the world. A related thread: "Isotopes for Dummies" (most of the information in the first two posts there is of primal importance to eventually understanding The Periodic Table, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself). Also in that thread, porcupine's link to "orbits and orbitals" is well-worth reading and committing to memory, but again, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Feel free to correct me if you see mistakes (or just chime in to say hello!), but remember that I'm starting from an embarrassingly low-level of knowledge, and will eventually get around to correcting my own mistakes as I progress. On other notes, my three most-recent meals have been: Pepita Cantina, Yona, and Kapnos Taverna.
