Home / Flashcard library / General knowledge / Periodic table / Groups, Trends & Notable Elements

General knowledge

Periodic Table — Groups, Trends & Notable Elements flashcards

10 of 60 cards free to study here · 9 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

How the table is organised: the named groups and blocks, periodic trends with the reasons behind them, notable heavier elements, the four newest names and the history from Mendeleev to Moseley.

Get the app All Periodic table decks

Learn deck · part of Periodic table · written against: IUPAC element names through Og (118). Updated 2026-10-10.

Study the free sample

10 cards from the deck as they are. Flip, rate yourself, filter by topic; your progress stays in this browser.

The 10 sample cards as a list
  1. What property of an atom fixes its place in the modern periodic table?
    Its atomic number — the number of protons in the nucleus.

    Elements are listed in order of increasing atomic number.
    Table Layout
  2. How many groups (columns) does the modern IUPAC periodic table have?
    18, numbered 1 to 18 from left to right.
    Table Layout
  3. What is the family name of group 1 (excluding hydrogen)?
    The alkali metals: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and francium.
    Alkali & Alkaline Earth Metals
  4. What is the family name of group 17, and what does the name mean?
    The halogens — Greek for "salt-formers", because they combine with metals to make salts such as sodium chloride.
    Halogens & Noble Gases
  5. Which groups make up the transition metals?
    Groups 3–12, the d-block in the middle of the table.

    Watch out: group 12 (zinc, cadmium and mercury) is not always counted, because its atoms and usual ions have a full d subshell.
    Transition Metals & f-Block
  6. Which six elements are most commonly classed as metalloids?
    Boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium, lying along the staircase between metals and nonmetals.
    Metalloids
  7. How does atomic radius change across a period from left to right, and why?
    It generally decreases. Nuclear charge rises while electrons are added to the same shell, so the outer electrons are pulled in more tightly.
    Periodic Trends
  8. What is the symbol and atomic number of silver, and where does the symbol come from?
    Ag, 47 — from the Latin argentum. Silver conducts electricity better than any other metal.
    Notable Heavy Elements
  9. Which element is number 113, and what is it named after?
    Nihonium (Nh), named after Japan (Nihon), where it was made at the RIKEN laboratory.
    Newest Elements
  10. What bold move made Mendeleev's 1869 periodic table so convincing?
    He left gaps for undiscovered elements and predicted their properties. Gallium (1875), scandium (1879) and germanium (1886) later filled them closely.
    History

Unlock the whole deck

You are studying a free 10-card sample. All 60 cards of Periodic Table — Groups, Trends & Notable Elements, the other 2 Periodic table decks, and spaced-repetition scheduling are built into Willys. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.

Get the app

In Willys, tap Exam Library at the top of your Decks (or Browse Exam Library… under the + button), find the exam on its shelf or by search, tick it and tap Add.

More Periodic table decks

Elements 1–36Practice Questions

← All Periodic table decks, with the study guide and topic outline.

About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Checked against the IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements (iupac.org, including the 2016 naming of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118) and the Royal Society of Chemistry periodic table (rsc.org). All wording original.
  • Also checked against the NIST Atomic Spectra Database, PubChem's periodic-table and element records, the CIAAW standard atomic weights (2024), the Los Alamos National Laboratory periodic table, Mendeleev's 1889 Faraday Lecture (Carmen Giunta's Classic Chemistry), Moseley's 1913 and 1914 papers in the Philosophical Magazine, the Nobel Prize lectures and biographies (nobelprize.org), USGS publications, the University of British Columbia's page on Neil Bartlett, Oxford's A Dictionary of Chemistry, the US Energy Information Administration, MedlinePlus, Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary (reference only; no text copied).
  • OpenStax Chemistry 2e, consulted as a reference; no text copied.

These are independent study notes written for Willys. They are not official exam material, may contain mistakes, and are no substitute for your course, your teacher or the exam owner's own publications. Found an error? Tell us — corrections ship as a new version of the deck.

Use of these pages is covered by our Terms of Use.