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This person is dropped on a fantasy feudal world and is basically playing factorio with nanobots, but the challenge is that they don't have resources with which to build everything, hence negotiation with fantasy locals. While the MC is capable of using their nanobots to slowly create things such as carbon nanotubes and create mechanically simple chemical refinement, they need a spread of elements across the periodic table to be able to create things such as sensors, computers, special-purpose tools, lasers and so on.

I'm aware of groups such as 'heavy metals', 'light metals', noble gases and so on, but are those useful definitions? Can I break down the periodic table into general groups of elements good for certain machines? If so, what are those groups?

TL;DR: My question is what the groups of the periodic table are called, and if they are useful descriptions for getting 'groups' of resources with which known technologies are built off.

final edit: thanks very much for the answers, I think I wanted a way to group togther certain elements so I'd have a system for saying 'the dwarves have a few lanthanides to sell, while the elves deal in numerous light metals' since I don't know where in our modern world we get elements such as boron, tungsten, beryllium, and other obscure elements.

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  • $\begingroup$ Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:10
  • $\begingroup$ There are multiple mays in which you can divide up the periodic table, but probably you should state what your end goal is. It sounds like you're looking for a simplified resource list for a game, is that correct? $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:27
  • $\begingroup$ Medieval people will not be familiar with which substances are elements and which are not. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:36
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, a broad 'resource list' would be a great way of putting it, I'm looking at the periodic table divided by its groups in this image, but I don't feel I understand the properties of all the groups enough to use them as depicted. Also, for the point of medieval folk not knowing their elements, I'm abstracting that the guy can tell at a glance or a quick test what elements materials are made from. $\endgroup$
    – Midas
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:37
  • $\begingroup$ @Midas Maybe start with looking at what goes into a lightbulb. You have glass, electric wire, structural metal, and a filament. That sounds like 4 categories right there. I presume each can be made from several different things. The categories might overlap but that is no problem. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:39

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Here are some examples. First, conductive metals good for wires and circuitry:

enter image description here

Three of the best ones are in the same column. That's nice. Aluminium is off on her own though :-(

enter image description here

Second is the noble gasses. There exist neon lights which are tubes full of neon and electricity. I believe Argon and Krypton can also be used in lights.

enter image description here

The magnetic metals are next to each other too. That's nice. But it's not too significant when the rest of the elements in that row are non-magnetic.

Even something simple as the metals you good make a half-decent cooking pot, sword or cogwheel are all over the place:

enter image description here

Someone more knowledgeable feel free to correct me on that one.

In general I believe some of the elements with similar properties are found in some of the same rows and columns. But it is not the other way around. You cannot say all elements in row/column X are good for the same thing.

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  • $\begingroup$ thanks very much for the answer, I'm seeing I have a lot more thinking to do if I want to stay dedicated to having resource limitations remain a significant thing in the story. $\endgroup$
    – Midas
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 18:46
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    $\begingroup$ Xenon makes a pretty good lamp too. I'd also be very impressed by any feudal society making cogwheels out of tungsten. $\endgroup$
    – jdunlop
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 21:30
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    $\begingroup$ "some of the elements with similar properties are found in some of the same rows and columns" - indeed, that's why Mendeleev made his table periodic in the first place, because of those similarities. Only later did chemists discover how subatomic particles gave rise to those patterns. $\endgroup$
    – Cadence
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 22:46
  • $\begingroup$ A lot of us have Xenon-based lamps around--photographic flashes. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 0:34
  • $\begingroup$ I suspect many of the lists you gave are incomplete--the elements below are scarce or effectively nonexistent and thus aren't considered for the uses you list. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 0:39

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