The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, organized on the basis of their atomic numbers, electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties.
As early as 330 BCE, Aristotle created a four-element table: earth, air, fire, and water. But it wasn't until the late 1700s that Antoine Lavoisier, a French nobleman and chemist, wrote the first list of 33 elements. He classified them as metals and nonmetals, though we now know that some were compounds or mixtures.