A clickable periodic table for quick lookups
This page draws all 118 known chemical elements in the standard 18-column layout, with the lanthanides (57-71) and actinides (89-103) in two rows underneath. Each tile shows the atomic number, symbol and name, and is coloured by one of eleven categories. Select any tile to open a detail panel with the atomic mass, electron configuration, melting and boiling points in degrees Celsius, and the year the element was discovered or first made. It is meant for students checking homework, teachers preparing a lesson, or anyone who needs a fact such as "what is tungsten's melting point" without flipping through a textbook.
How to use it
- Type in the search box to highlight matching elements. It matches names, symbols and atomic numbers, including partial text, so "ium" lights up every element whose name contains it and "8" matches 8, 18, 28 and so on.
- Press a category button (Alkali Metal, Halogen, Noble Gas and the rest) to fade out everything else; press All to show the whole table again. Search and category filters work together.
- Click or tap an element. The panel above the table fills with its details and the tile gets a purple outline.
- On narrow screens the table scrolls sideways and the element names on the tiles are hidden to keep the symbols readable.
How it works
The element data is a table stored in the page's JavaScript, and the grid, legend and detail panel are built from it in your browser. Nothing is downloaded after the page loads and nothing you type leaves your device. Filtering fades non-matching tiles instead of removing them, so every element keeps its position in the table. Atomic masses are given in unified atomic mass units (u); elements with no stable isotope, such as technetium (98) or oganesson (294), show a whole number, the mass number of a long-lived isotope. Electron configurations use noble-gas shorthand: chromium is [Ar]3d5 4s1, one of the well-known exceptions to the simple filling order. When a melting or boiling point is not in the data the panel says "Unknown", and elements known since antiquity (carbon, sulfur, iron, copper, gold, lead and a few others) show "Ancient" as their discovery date.
Data sources and limitations
The page describes its element data as based on IUPAC-recommended values. The figures are rounded, and a few follow older conventions: lithium appears as 6.941, whereas IUPAC's current abridged standard atomic weight is 6.94. Keep these points in mind when accuracy matters:
- Temperatures are rounded to whole degrees. Values for highly radioactive elements such as francium and astatine are estimates, and helium only solidifies under pressure.
- Carbon has no melting point at normal pressure because it sublimes, so reference tables quote different figures.
- From rutherfordium (104) onward no melting or boiling points are given, and elements 109-118 are grouped as "Unknown" because too few atoms have been made to measure their chemistry. Their electron configurations are predictions.
- Category borders are a convention. Here hydrogen is a nonmetal, zinc, cadmium and mercury are transition metals, and lanthanum and actinium head the lanthanide and actinide rows; other tables draw these lines differently.
- Discovery years can differ by a few years between sources, depending on whether they count first detection, isolation or confirmation.
Frequently asked questions
How many elements are there?
118 have been named and confirmed, ending with oganesson (118). Elements up to plutonium (94) have been found in nature, some only in trace amounts; the rest have only been made in laboratories.
What do the colours mean?
Each colour is a category: alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, post-transition metals, metalloids, nonmetals, halogens, noble gases, lanthanides, actinides, and grey for elements whose properties are unknown. The legend under the search box lists them.
Why are two rows shown below the main table?
The lanthanides and actinides belong in periods 6 and 7, but the table would be 32 columns wide if they were placed inline. The 57-71 and 89-103 markers in the third column show where they fit.
Can I use these values in a lab report?
They are fine for quick reference, but cite a primary source such as the IUPAC tables or a current chemistry handbook for anything graded or published, since the values here are rounded.