Period (periodic table) across periods. Seven periods of elements occur naturally on Earth. For period 8, which includes elements which may be synthesized after 2016, see the extended periodic table. A group in chemistry means a family of objects with similarities like different families. There are 7 periods, going horizontally across the periodic table. The first period contains the least elements than any other, with only two, hydrogen and helium. They therefore do not follow the octet rule. Chemically, helium behaves like a noble gas, and thus is taken to be part of the group 18 elements. However, in terms of its nuclear
History of the periodic table (Z=19), despite the fact that argon's atomic weight of 39.9 is greater than the atomic weight of potassium (39.1). The new order was in agreement with the chemical properties of these elements, since argon is a noble gas and potassium is an alkali metal. Similarly, Moseley placed cobalt before nickel and was able to explain that tellurium occurs before iodine, without revising the experimental atomic weight of tellurium, as had been proposed by Mendeleev. Moseley's research showed that there were gaps in the periodic table at atomic numbers 43 and 61, which are now known to be occupied by technetium