But then you start adding more and more pieces of paper. No problem-the magnet holds the single piece of paper with ease. You use one of the magnets to hold up your prized study hall doodle. Think about all the funky magnets you keep on your refrigerator. In essence, the electrons in the outer shells don't 'feel' the pull of the nucleus as strongly as those that are closer to the nucleus. Electrons in a 1s orbital are closer to the nucleus than electrons in a 2s orbital. This time, we're comparing electrons in different shells. Going down a group, atomic radii increase.

The more protons, the more love, and the electrons are pulled in closer to the nucleus. This greater nuclear attraction pulls the electrons in more closely, and the atomic radii actually decrease. This can be a little confusing, but we have you covered-read on.Īs we move left to right across a period we are also observing an increase in atomic charge (the number of protons is increasing). In general, atomic size decreases as we move left to right across the periodic table. In other words, atomic radii are used to measure atomic size. Atomic Radiusīy definition, the atomic radius is one-half the distance between nuclei of two atoms. It's like having a flat, gigantic crystal ball. The truth is, if you look at the table as a whole, some even more powerful trends start to emerge that can help us compare elemental properties and even predict reactivity.

But that's not all the periodic table has to offer. Trust us, understanding general trends within families will come in handy one day, either on a test or when playing Jeopardy!. Periodic Table Trends The Periodic Table is Oh So TrendyĪt this point, we've examined various elemental occupants of the periodic table.

Periodic trends test