What is it about the Periodic Table that inspires so many take-offs? Look at all these fun makeovers:

• The Periodic Table of Typefaces
• The Periodic Table song, “The Elements,” by my favorite mid-20th-century musical humorist (!) Tom Lehrer.  See it sung here by Daniel Radcliffe, whom I like even more now that I know he also is a Tom Lehrer fan 🙂
• The Periodic Table of Swearing (now also a game)
• The Periodic Table of Texting
• The Periodic Table of Meat
• The Periodic Table of Beer Styles

Actually, the real Periodic Table is pretty interesting, too, even for someone who hated chemistry class (me).

I bought this book, The Mystery of the Periodic Table, for my kids, but I ended up being the person who enjoyed it the most.  The history of how elements were discovered and the Table ordered is fascinating, especially its uncanny mathematical precision in prediciting the properties of as-yet-undiscovered elements based on their empty-square positions in the Table.

There’s a similar book for grownups,  The Disappearing Spoon (etc., a really long title), by Sam Kean.

The ancient Greeks were really on to something when they discovered the “golden ratio.”  If you can tolerate one more link in a link-heavy post, this old (1959) Walt Disney short, Donald in Mathmagic Land, has the nicest explanation ever of the mathematical underpinnings of the universe.  It shows the inherent mathematical structure underlying architecture, music, nature – and even games like billiards or pool.  Informative and very entertaining.  Used copies of this DVD can be found on Amazon for under $20, and you can also usually find this 27-minute cartoon on YouTube, too.  Here’s a link to the movie on YouTube, and if it has been removed by the time you click through, you can probably find it easily by searching for the title.  Someone else will probably have reposted it by then.