WAC Defending Mendeleev

     Dear National Science Foundation (NSF),

     I am Dmitri Mendeleev's friend and I have some things to say about why he is not crazy. You may think he is crazy for leaving spaces, but he is leaving spaces for atoms that have not been discovered because (example) is there is a 30 and 33, why wouldn't there be a 31 and 32? He can predict its qualities because elements in the same column/family will have similar properties. If he doesn't leave spaces there will be no patterns to follow.
     One property that he took in mind while making this table is reactions. When look at it, it looks like a messed up blob. But when you look at it more, you see that in the columns are elements that react the same. This is because (as you will discover later) they all have the same amount of electrons on their outer shell so that gives them the same reactions.
     Another property he took into mind is atomic weight. This helps by making things easy to find. This also shows that things react because how many electrons are in the outer shell. That affects electrons in outer shell because for every proton, there is a neutron.
    He is also right because people discovered the elements that he left spaces for. Those elements fit perfectly it the gaps and reacted like he expected them to. This is again, because of the electrons in the outer shell. His idea actually makes so much sense and is so logical that some people also thought of it.
     So in conclusion, what may seem like a complete mess has a method, and that method is pretty logical. So you should not shut him down. He has created something amazing, that will help you define how elements work.