Dmitri Mendeleev Trivia Questions

He organized by atomic weight, which sometimes caused misplacements. The modern table uses atomic number (proton count), a refinement made later by Moseley.

He famously left gaps in his periodic table and accurately predicted elements like gallium, germanium, and scandium before they were found.

Several scientists, like John Newlands and Lothar Meyer, had earlier versions. Mendeleev’s was the most comprehensive, but not the first.

Mendeleev never won the Nobel Prize. He was nominated in 1905 and 1906, but the Chemistry Prize was not awarded to him, and his death in 1907 made him ineligible for future awards.

He resigned from St. Petersburg University in 1890 after a dispute over student protests, but he wasn't fired for radical politics—he supported academic freedom.

The standard 40% ABV for vodka was set by the Russian government in 1843, long before Mendeleev's work; the story of his involvement is a widespread myth.

In 1887, he flew alone in a balloon because his pilot was too heavy. He piloted it himself, made observations, and landed safely.

In 1869, he published a table that arranged elements by increasing atomic weight, leaving gaps for undiscovered elements whose properties he accurately predicted.