I am a Professor of Chemistry, and I must admit I don’t know the whole Periodic Table off by heart!
What you discovered is that there are patterns within the arrangement of elements which make most of it memorable (e.g. the halogens all sit in the same column and go from gases at the top to liquids at the bottom.) and knowing those patterns is the more important thing to remember.
I actually have a Periodic Table on the wall behind my desk at work when I have to look something specific up.
Don’t! haha I once had a lecturer who told me you needed to know it by heart if you wanted to do science as a job. Well, he must be fuming at my career path ;P Justin is completely right about their grouping by properties and that is most of what you need to know
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