12
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This puzzle follows from the Purple Periodic Puzzle (these puzzles are solved individually).

Another strange periodic table has appeared and it's hiding a secret word.

Can you find out what's strange about this green periodic table and find the answer?

enter image description here

Text-only version:

H                                                                   He  
V   O                                           I   C   N   Be  F   Ne  
Na  La                                          Al  Ho  P   S   Cl  Ar  
K   Ca  Sc  Ti  Li  Cr  Mn  Fe  Co  Ni  Cu  Zn  Ga  Ge  As  Se  Br  Kr  
Rb  Sr  Y   Zr  Nb  Mo  Tc  Ru  Rh  Pd  Ag  Cd  In  Sn  Sb  Te  B   Xe  
Cs  Ba  Mg  Hf  Ta  W   Re  Os  Ir  Pt  Au  Hg  Tl  Pb  Bi  Po  At  Rn  
Fr  Ra  Er  Rf  Db  Sg  Bh  Hs  Mt  Ds  Rg  Cn  Nh  Fl  Mc  Lv  Ts  Og   
 
        Ce  Pr  Nd  Pm  Sm  Eu  Gd  Tb  Dy  Si  Ac  Tm  Yb  Lu          
        Th  Pa  U   Np  Pu  Am  Cm  Bk  Cf  Es  Fm  Md  No  Lr          
```
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1 Answer 1

10
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The wrong elements

seem to be switched in pairs:

enter image description here

So what do we do with this?

The atomic numbers here don't have any zeroes, and there's a fairly even distribution of digits - all of the nonzero digits appear at least once.

We can choose one of the elements from each pair, along with its new atomic number, to get all the digits from 1-9 once:

3=V / 4=O / 67=Si / 12=La / 89=Er / 5=I

Sorting these new letters from 1-9, we get LAVOISIER, an early chemist who was one of the first to attempt to list the chemical elements.

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2
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Darn it! I was just writing an answer. grumbles $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Feb 26, 2021 at 18:37
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Great job! Of course this is the right answer, but I noticed there seems to be a small error in the image. Er should go to Ac and Ho to Si. $\endgroup$ Mar 4, 2021 at 23:07

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