Question

Marie discovers boxes of elements in a storage room. The boxes do not say which elements they contain, but they do have information about their locations on the periodic table. What kind of information would allow Marie to determine which boxes contain the most reactive elements?

Answer 1

The elements in a Periodic Table are grouped according to their classifications. The major classifications are Metals, Non-metals, and Metalloids. Their level of reactivity can be gauged by simply looking at their position in the table. For Metals, their reactivity increases as you move to the left then going down. Non-metal reactivity increases as you move to the right then going up, starting at the bottom of the table.

Answer 2

The periodic table is a table that classifies elements based on their chemical properties and physical properties into groups (columns) and periods (rows). Elements in the same group have similar chemical properties, for example group I elements (alkali earth metals) have the same valency (electrons in the outermost energy level). The table also shows the physical properties of an element, for example whether it is a metal or a non metal; e.g group 1, 2 and 3 elements are all metals while group 4 are metaloids, group 5,6 and 7 are non metals and group 8 elements are noble gases with an octet configuration. Additionally, the table also reveals the order reactivity depending on the eas of gaining electrons (for non metals) and loosing electrons (for metals).