The Periodic Table of Everything

When it comes to questions of classification, there are usually many avenues one can pursue. The approach one takes to classify any given set of conceptual objects depends to a large extent on the taxonomist's goals. One could try to create a classification system based on aesthetic preferences (like Tom Lehrer did for the purposes of his awesome Elements Song), on criteria of usefulness (like books sorted by subject matter and alphabetically in a library), on degrees of similarity, on proximity of historical genealogy, based on inherent properties of the objects to be classified, etc.

Two of the most famous and useful systems of classification are Darwin's phylogenetic tree of life and Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of elements, and as you can see below, the latter has been adopted to classify all sorts of things...

The Periodic Table of Elements:


The Periodic Table of Sex Positions:


The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense:


The Periodic Table of Vulgarity:


The Periodic Table of Swearing:


The Periodic Table of Rejected Elements:


The Periodic Table of the Internet:


The Periodic Table of Typefaces:


The Periodic Table of Beer Styles:


The Periodic Table of Video Game Characters:


The Periodic Table of Awesome:


The Periodic Table of Dangerous Elements (can you spot the one Democrat?):


The Periodic Table of Legos:


The Periodic Table of Controllers:


The Periodic Table of Produce and Storage:


The Periodic Table of Desserts:


The Periodic Table of Cartoon Characters:


The Periodic Table of Cupcakes:


The Periodic Table of Final Fantasy Characters:


Just the Periodic Table :)


Let me know if you come across other ones.
.