From Periodic Properties to a Periodic Table Arrangement

A periodic table is constructed from the consideration of periodic properties and the application of the principal components analysis technique. This procedure is useful for objects classification and data reduction and has been used in the field of chemistry for many applications, such as lanthanides, molecules, or conformers classification. From the information given, the whole procedure can be reproduced by any interested reader having a basic background in statistics and with the help of the supplementary material provided. Intermediate calculations are instructive because they quantify several concepts the students know only at a qualitative level. The final scores representation reveals an unexpected periodic table presenting some interesting features and points for discussion.