Periodic table centre and the transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides occupying peninsulas. Most periodic tables are two-dimensional; three-dimensional tables are known to as far back as at least 1862 (pre-dating Mendeleev's two-dimensional table of 1869). More recent examples include Courtines' Periodic Classification (1925), Wringley's Lamina System (1949), Giguère's Periodic helix (1965) and Dufour's Periodic Tree (1996). Going one further, Stowe's Physicist's Periodic Table (1989) has been described as being four-dimensional (having three spatial dimensions and one colour dimension). The various forms of periodic tables can be thought of as lying on a chemistry–physics continuum. Towards the chemistry end of the continuum can
Block (periodic table) Block (periodic table) A block of the periodic table of elements is a set of adjacent groups. The term appears to have been first used by Charles Janet. The respective highest-energy electrons in each element in a block belong to the same atomic orbital type. Each block is named after its characteristic orbital; thus, the blocks are: The block names (s, p, d, f and g) are derived from the spectroscopic notation for the associated atomic orbitals: sharp, principal, diffuse and fundamental, and then g which follows f in the alphabet. The following is the order for filling the "subshell"