Asked by jena

How did Dmitri Mendeleev deal with elements that had not yet been discovered?

Responses

He gave them names and properties and placed them in the table.

He gave them names and properties and placed them in the table.

He created them in his laboratory and placed them in the table.

He created them in his laboratory and placed them in the table.

He ignored them, placing them in the table and shifting others when they were discovered.

He ignored them, placing them in the table and shifting others when they were discovered.

He left blanks for them in his periodic table, as he predicted they would be discovered.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
He left blanks for them in his periodic table, as he predicted they would be discovered.

Mendeleev intentionally left gaps and even predicted the properties (atomic weight, valence, density, oxide formulas, etc.) of the missing elements, using provisional names with the prefix eka-, dvi-, etc. Several of his predictions were confirmed later (e.g., eka-aluminium → gallium, eka-silicon → germanium, eka-boron → scandium).