Who created the first periodic table?

The first periodic table was created by Dmitri Mendeleev in the late 19th century, specifically in 1869. Mendeleev's table was groundbreaking because it organized the known elements based on atomic mass and chemical properties, which allowed him to predict the properties of elements that had not yet been discovered. His work laid the foundation for the modern periodic table, emphasizing the periodicity of elemental properties, where elements with similar characteristics appear at regular intervals.

This arrangement demonstrated that when elements are listed according to increasing atomic mass, certain trends and patterns emerge, highlighting the relationships among various elements. Mendeleev also left gaps for undiscovered elements, indicating that there were properties yet to be explored, a prescient move that later proved to be accurate with the discovery of elements like gallium and germanium, which fit the patterns he had established.

The other figures mentioned—Marie Curie, John Dalton, and Albert Einstein—made significant contributions to science. Still, their work focused on different areas, such as radioactivity in Curie's case, atomic theory in Dalton's, and the theory of relativity in Einstein's, none of which pertained to the creation of the periodic table itself.