Periodic Table Quiz: 10 Questions That Test What You Know

This periodic table quiz covers Mendeleev's original table, groups and periods, metals and nonmetals, halogens, noble gases, element symbols and the newest elements added in 2016. Ten questions test what you know about chemistry's most famous chart.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Creator
Who published the first widely recognized periodic table in 1869?
Order
Elements in the modern periodic table are arranged by what?
Count
How many elements are on the current periodic table?
Rows
What are the horizontal rows of the periodic table called?
Columns
What are the vertical columns called?
Group 18
Which group contains helium, neon and argon?
Group 1
Which group of metals reacts violently with water?
Most
Which element is the most abundant in the universe?
Liquid
Which metal is liquid at room temperature?
Newest
Which element, number 118, is the heaviest yet named?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Who published the first widely recognized periodic table in 1869?
Answer: Dmitri Mendeleev
He left gaps for elements that had not yet been discovered.
Q2: Elements in the modern periodic table are arranged by what?
Answer: Atomic number
The atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus.
Q3: How many elements are on the current periodic table?
Answer: 118
The last four were officially named in 2016.
Q4: What are the horizontal rows of the periodic table called?
Answer: Periods
There are seven periods.
Q5: What are the vertical columns called?
Answer: Groups
Elements in a group have similar properties.
Q6: Which group contains helium, neon and argon?
Answer: Noble gases
They rarely react because their outer shells are full.
Q7: Which group of metals reacts violently with water?
Answer: Alkali metals
Sodium and potassium fizz and can burst into flame.
Q8: Which element is the most abundant in the universe?
Answer: Hydrogen
About three-quarters of normal matter is hydrogen.
Q9: Which metal is liquid at room temperature?
Answer: Mercury
Its symbol Hg comes from the Latin hydrargyrum.
Q10: Which element, number 118, is the heaviest yet named?
Answer: Oganesson
It is named after Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian.

Periodic Table Quiz – Chemistry's Map of Matter

The periodic table organizes all known elements by atomic number, the number of protons in each atom's nucleus. Its rows, called periods, and columns, called groups, reveal patterns in how elements behave, react and bond.

Dmitri Mendeleev created the first successful table in 1869. He boldly left gaps and predicted the properties of undiscovered elements like gallium and germanium, which were later found to match his predictions closely. Henry Moseley later showed that atomic number, not weight, was the true ordering principle.

Today the table has 118 elements, from hydrogen to oganesson. Metals sit on the left and center, nonmetals on the right and noble gases in the last column. Chemists use it every day to predict reactions, design new materials and understand everything from stars to medicines.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is for students and chemistry fans learning the periodic table.

Who made the first table
How elements are ordered
What periods and groups are
Which groups react strongly
Which elements are newest

Did You Know?

The heaviest natural element is uranium.
Helium was found in the Sun before Earth.
Element names include countries like France and Japan.
Gallium melts in your hand.
Fluorine is the most reactive nonmetal.