The elements of second and third period of the periodic table are given below:


(i) Which atom is bigger in size Li or Be? Why?


(ii) Which one element out of those given above is the most metallic and why?

(i) Li is bigger in size than beryllium. This is because the atomic size decreases on moving along a period as the effective nuclear charge increases on moving from left to right which tends to pull the electrons towards the nucleus.

(ii) Na is the most metallic element out of the given elements. This is because on moving along a period from left to right, the metallic character decreases and on moving down a group the metallic character increases. Thus Na is most metallic as it can easily loose its valence electron.


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