Guide

Periodic Table: Elements, Symbols and Groups

What the periodic table is, how many elements there are (118), periods and groups, the families (alkali metals, halogens, noble gases), the first 20 elements and symbols from Latin like Fe and Au.

By Polarzinho · October 20, 2026

Copper, iron, gold: in Deepforge I make pickaxes out of these metals and head down a mine. All of them are on the periodic table, the map of the building blocks everything is made of.

Here you get what the periodic table is, how to read periods and groups, the main families, the first 20 elements and why gold has the symbol Au.

Play Deepforge

What is the periodic table?

The periodic table arranges all the known chemical elements, 118 in total. An element is a type of atom, like oxygen or iron. The table was published by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869 and is still used today.

How to read the table

Atomic number: the number of protons in an atom. It sets the order: hydrogen is 1, helium is 2, and so on.
Symbol: one or two letters. The first is always capitalized: H, He, Fe.
Periods: the 7 horizontal rows.
Groups (or families): the 18 vertical columns. Elements in the same group behave in similar ways.

The main families

Alkali metals (group 1): lithium, sodium, potassium and others. Very reactive. Hydrogen sits in group 1 but is not an alkali metal.
Alkaline earth metals (group 2): beryllium, magnesium, calcium and others.
Halogens (group 17): fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine.
Noble gases (group 18): helium, neon, argon and others. They hardly react with anything.
Transition metals (groups 3 to 12): iron, copper, gold, silver and others.

The first 20 elements

1. H: hydrogen
2. He: helium
3. Li: lithium
4. Be: beryllium
5. B: boron
6. C: carbon
7. N: nitrogen
8. O: oxygen
9. F: fluorine
10. Ne: neon
11. Na: sodium
12. Mg: magnesium
13. Al: aluminum
14. Si: silicon
15. P: phosphorus
16. S: sulfur
17. Cl: chlorine
18. Ar: argon
19. K: potassium
20. Ca: calcium

Symbols that come from Latin

Some symbols do not look like the English name because they come from the Latin name:

Fe (iron, no. 26): from Latin ferrum
Au (gold, no. 79): from Latin aurum
Ag (silver, no. 47): from Latin argentum
Cu (copper, no. 29): from Latin cuprum
Pb (lead, no. 82): from Latin plumbum
Sn (tin, no. 50): from Latin stannum
Hg (mercury, no. 80): from Latin hydrargyrum
Na (sodium, no. 11): from Latin natrium
K (potassium, no. 19): from Latin kalium

Metals, nonmetals and metalloids

Metals: shiny, conduct heat and electricity and most are solid. Most of the elements.
Nonmetals: do not conduct electricity well. Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen.
Metalloids: in between, like silicon.

Copper, iron and gold in Deepforge

In Deepforge, everything starts in a copper mine, with dirt and stone. By merging matching picks you make stronger tools, like a Blue Steel Pick after combining two Iron Picks.