Question

How are sodium, chlorine, and aluminum alike?

Answer 1

Hint: The best way to find out similarities between various elements is to first consider their trends and position on the modern periodic table. With this we can easily obtain the answer to the given question.

Complete answer:
- The periodic table is a regular arrangement of elements. It is the greatest source of information as far as chemistry is concerned.
- It enables chemists to easily understand and to compare the properties of elements.
- The period is a horizontal arrangement of elements while a group is a vertical arrangement of elements.
- Sodium, chlorine and aluminum are alike as they all belong to the third period of the periodic table. And as we say they belong to the same period, they have similar filled electron subshells.
- The third period elements are called typical elements or representative elements because they represent the properties of their own group without anomalies.

Additional information:
The periodic table that we study today is the modern periodic table and was invented by Dimitri Mendeleev. However, Mendeleev was not the first one who grouped and arranged the elements in the form of a periodic table.

Note:
The third period consists of eight elements which are: sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and argon. The first two of these, sodium and magnesium, are members of the s-block, while the others are members of the p-block of the periodic table.