Periodic Trends on the Periodic Table

In class yesterday we covered the electronic structure of an atom. We Primarily focused on electron configurations and orbital diagrams (and many did very well on the simple quiz I gave midway through the period). Near the end of class I briefly talked about periodic trends, the topic I want to focus on in this blog post.

In our discussion about the periodic table we talked about how each period represents a primary energy level within an atom. Period one is the energy level closest to the nucleus while period 2,3,4, etc are further and further from the nucleus. We also talked about how each period represents a fixed energy level. This returns us back to the concepts of electromagnetic radiation we covered earlier in the chapter. Fixed energy levels were first observed in heat radiating from everyday objects. The energy levels of the measured heat were discontinuous. This same observation holds true for electrons surrounding the nucleus of an atom.