Five Michigan colleges came together Wednesday to set a new world record in the name of science.

Spanning more than three football fields in size, the world's largest periodic table was set up at Wayne State's Intramural Athletics Fields on Oct. 23, which is Mole Day.

Celebrated annually on Oct. 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates "Avogadro's Number" (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day also typically falls during National Chemistry Week.

This year, National Chemistry Week celebrated the "International Year of the Periodic Table."

The table as the result of a collaboration with student chemistry clubs from Wayne State, UM-Dearborn, UM-Flint, University of Detroit Mercy and Lawrence Tech.

Set up started around 7:30 a.m. and went into the afternoon using blue tarps and paint to get the table set up to meet their 1 p.m. goal.


The Periodic Table has gotten bigger over the last few years, with 118 elements now included.

All of the tarps will be donated to disaster relief.