Atomic radius versus atomic number

Which is the largest of the first 54 elements?

Rubidium (0.216nm)

Describe how the atomic radius varies within a period and within a family.

The atomic radii vary across the periodic table. It generally decreases from left to right along each period of the table, from the alkali metals to the noble gases; radii increase down each group. Radius increases sharply between the noble gas at the end of each row and the alkali metal at the beginning of the next period. These are can be explained by the arrangement of the electrons in shells.

Use your graph to predict the atomic radius of the following elements

(a) Cesium: 0.252  (b)   tungsten: 0.142  (c)   thallium: 0.167    (d)   radon: 0.136

Which group of the main group elements contains the largest elements?

Elements in group 1 have the highest occupied energy level, they are the largest elements.

Ionization energy versus atomic number

How would you explain ionization energy to your partner?

Ionization energy is a quantity of energy and is the amount of energy needed to remove an electron. Usually, the closer the electrons are to the nucleus, the higher ionization energy it will have.

How does the ionization energy vary within a period and within a family?

When you move to the right of a period (rows), the number of electrons increases and the strength of shielding increases. As a result, it is easier for valence shell electrons to ionize (easier for ionization), and this the ionization energy decreases down a group.

Which element on your graph has the strongest hold of its valence electrons?

Helium has the strongest hold of its valence electrons. This is because helium has a full valence electron shell. Helium is also the furthest o the right and in the top row of elements meaning that it has a high ionization.

Write the electron configuration for chlorine.

Cl: 1s22s22p63s23p5

Which electron is lost when 1251 kJ/mol of energy are applied to a sample of chlorine atoms?

When 1251 kJ/mol of energy is applied to a sample of chlorine, it will lose its valence electron.

Compare the ionization energies of metals to nonmetals

Metals take small amounts of energy to remove electrons from atoms. Which is why they have a relatively low ionization energy. Metals tend to lost electrons and form positive ions. Non-metals have a strong attraction to their valence electrons. Which is why they have a high ionization energy. Unlike metals, they gain electrons to form negative ions.

Melting point versus atomic number

Describe the trend of melting points within a period.

The melting points within a period increase because of the increasing strength of the metallic bonds. The number of electrons, which each atom can contribute, shared among more than two atoms in a molecule, increases. Atoms will also get smaller and contain more protons as you go from left to right.

Which group of elements tends to have the highest melting points.

Metals tend to have a higher melting point at higher temperatures, the stronger that the bonds are, the more energy to break them to change the state of the element.

Tungsten is used in incandescent light bulbs because it has an extremely high melting point. Which element on your chart could be a reasonable replacement for tungsten? Why?

Carbon is a reasonable replacement for Tungsten because it has the highest melting point out of all the elements.

Density versus atomic number

Describe how density varies within a period.

The density increase when you go from left to right and top to bottom. But the density of the gaseous elements will be lower than the solids.

Compare the densities of the elements in the second period with the elements in the third period.

The third period is denser than the second period because it is further away from the left side of the periodic table. When you move from left to right on the periodic table the density will increase in number.

Assume that the transition metals given in the table are representative of the other members of this group. How do the densities of the transition metals compare with those of the elements in the main group?

Transition metals have the highest densities of any group on the periodic table, and their densities increase steadily and gradually compared to the elements in the main group which densities that are not as high.

Explain why aluminum and magnesium are more suitable than iron for use in some airplane parts.

Since aircrafts need to be made of light-weight materials, aluminum and magnesium is the perfect combination that is the most suitable to be used as aircrafts parts. The combination of aluminum and magnesium makes the aircraft light but strong/durable.

Electronegativity versus atomic number

Describe how electronegativity varies within a period. 

As you move from left to right across a period on the periodic table, the electronegativity increases.

Describe how electronegativity varies within a family.

As you move down a group or a family on the periodic table, the electronegativity of an element decreases because the increased number of energy levels puts the outer electrons far from the pull of the nucleus.