Talk:Group 3 element

IUPAC committee decides that the organization of the periodic table isn't their business
After some idle googling, I came across the IUPAC's Division VIII (Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation) minutes from their August 2013 committee meeting in Istanbul. This is copied from page 11, section 15.3.2 at https://iupac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Division-VIII-Meeting-Minutes-Istanbul-August-2013pdf.pdf :


 * 15.3.2. Discussion about Group 3 in the Periodic Table
 * This item arose from the ‘Up for Discussion’ article by Eric Scerri entitled ‘Mendeleev’s Periodic Table is finally completed and what to do about Group 3?’ in Chem. Int. 34(4), 28–31 (2012) (see http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2012/3404/ud.html). In his article Scerri presents an argument that he believes renders the newly proposed grouping of Sc, Y, Lu and Lr rather compelling, suggesting that any reluctance to accept this grouping as opposed to the more frequently seen grouping of Sc, Y, La and Ac for the Group 3 elements stems entirely from a reluctance to display the periodic table in a 32-column format. He furthermore proposes that IUPAC should take a stance on the membership of particular groups even if this has not been the practice up to this point. After some discussion it was clear that the committee was of the opinion that organization of the Periodic Table was not the business of the Division nor, indeed, of IUPAC.

This was the right no-decision for them to make in my view. The previous section of their minutes: '''15.3.1. Possible actions regarding Wikipedia''' is also an amusing read concluding in another spot-on no-decision. Flying Jazz (talk) 21:08, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Update: About four months later, in late December 2015, IUPAC set up a project to make a recommendation on the composition of group 3. Sandbh (talk) 05:43, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

The link Flying Jazz gave no longer works. Double sharp (talk) 15:01, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Link updated. Sandbh (talk) 02:21, 30 April 2023 (UTC)


 * And in January 2021 a provisional report appeared from that IUPAC project, supporting Sc/Y/Lu/Lr. Double sharp (talk) 10:35, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

The 1937 determination of Yb's electron configuration
Link. Double sharp (talk) 09:36, 8 April 2021 (UTC)