Question

According to the Newland’s law of octaves, the properties of fluorine are similar to those of _______.
A) Hydrogen
B) Lithium
C) Sodium
D) Potassium

Answer 1

Hint: According to Newland’s law of octaves, he arranged the known elements according to the increasing atomic masses of elements. The properties of the eight elements are similar to the properties of the first element. One can analyze the given options and think which can have similar properties with the fluorine.

Complete step by step answer:
1) First of all we will discuss Newland’s law of octaves. Newland’s law of octaves was one of the first methods to detect and arrange a periodic pattern according to the properties of the elements and it got anticipated later as developments of the periodic law.
2) According to Newland’s law of octaves, when the elements are arranged in the increasing atomic number then the properties of the eight elements will show similarity with the first element starting from any element.
3) The chemical and physical properties of elements are similar after the gap of seven elements consecutively. The first and eighth elements have similar properties starting from any compound.
4) So, if we arrange the elements in increasing order by taking the starting element as hydrogen then the eight elements will be the fluorine. This means the hydrogen will show similar properties to the fluorine.
Therefore, the properties of fluorine are similar to those of hydrogen which shows option A as the correct choice.

Note:
Newland’s law of octaves was one of the earliest attempts to build periodic patterns in elements. Newland’s law of octaves was only applicable for the elements up to calcium and it does not apply for the higher atomic number elements.