So you recognize patterns and then develop a model, and most desirably a quantitative model A quantitative model that explains the observations, obviously.But what Mendeleev did was he came up with a model that not only explained what we observed.

所以你们得到这些模式，发展成一个模型，和最令人向往的定量模型,一个定量模型明显地解释所有的观察结果，但是门捷列夫做的是,他提出的模型不仅解释了,我们观察到的东西。

麻省理工公开课 - 固态化学导论课程节选