What Were The Limitations of Newlands Law of Octaves?

Answer: When organising the elements in increasing order of their atomic weights within the periodic table, the eighth element’s properties were comparable to those of the first and per the Law of Octaves. The elements in the Newlands Law were organised into seven horizontal rows, each with seven elements. As a result, each element’s physical and chemical properties in the parallel row should be equivalent. However, this is not the case. Just until calcium does the periodicity hold. Lithium, sodium, and potassium were examples of the Law of Octaves because they have similar physical and chemical properties. 

After potassium, the following elements (Cu, Rb, Ag, and others) are all distinct. Those parts have no resemblance to the previous ones. That’s why transition metals are not included in the law of octaves. The Law of Octaves was discovered to be valid only up to calcium because, after then, no eighth element possessed qualities equal to the first. 

Newland seems to have considered just 56 elements in nature because no more would have been found in the future. However, as more elements were discovered, his Law could no longer hold, as well as several new elements emerged with qualities that contradicted Newlands’ law of Octaves. Newland placed two components in the same slot despite their differences in characteristics. For instance, cobalt and nickel are combined in only one slot, even in a column of elements such as fluorine, chlorine, or bromine, with quite distinct characteristics.