 | Something that would have helped me understand chemistry in grade
school would have been a way to visualize the nature of the elements by
their placement. Putting the noble gasses four squares into the
periodic table, with C N O F on one side and Na Mg Al to the right,
shows how compounds want to be neutral like neon.
Rolling this into an octogon, with squares staggared by 1/8, so that
the valence is shown by the difference in level with the noble gasses,
gives a simple picture of the basics.
Carbon combines with itself forming the strongest chain. Carbon has a
melting point more than 400F greater than tungston. Diamond is the
hardest and when graphite fibers are fixed in resin they create a
material four times stronger than steel. Closing the octogon on the C
Si Ge Sn column drives home this fact.
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