Gedankenexperiment: What would the periodic table look like if the world was two-dimensional?

Question

This is a question proposed to me in my quantum mechanics course. We have been discussing the rigid rotor in two and three dimensions and the extension of these concepts to the orbitals of atoms. However, what if the world was strictly? two-dimensional. How would this affect the possible orbitals and then what would the periodic table look like?

Thank you in advance.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The Universe is three dimensional, because of conservation of momentum, and multiple bodies.

So with more than one electron and one proton, you automatically produce a 3D Universe.

So the periodic table would look like:
H1
... and there'd be no one to write it. only 1 atom in the Universe, and the atom must be fully ionized, since even the production of the "binding energy" photon(s) makes three or more bodies in the Universe.

[EDIT:

Thumbs down for what?  Dimensions are required to fuflill / describe the possible interactions.  As soon as you have 3 bodies interacting, 3D space is required / produced.  Space is not stuff.  There is nothing, no force-system, in a 2D Universe to limit all interactions / constituents to a plane, without extending themselves out-of-plane.  So a 3D Universe is constructed by the forces.

Sorry someone does not agree.
]

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Gedankenexperiment: What would the periodic table look like if the world was two-dimensional?

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