So at this point, we know that the elements in the periodic table can be organized into rows called periods and into columns called groups. Now, within those groups, we can go a little bit further in our classification of these elements. We can classify them as being either transition metals or representative elements. Now when we say transition metals, this is the element found in groups 3 to 12. So we're talking here about groups 3 to 12. They're called transition metals because that name symbolizes their varying charges. So for example, Mn is a transition metal, it's called manganese. Depending on what element it pairs with, it can have a positive charge ranging from plus 1 to plus 7. We don't have to worry about charges just yet, but realize that they're called transition metals because they have varying charges, different charges based on the elements near them. Now we're going to say also that remember between La and Hf we have this row of transition metals, and between Ac and Rf we have this row of transition metals. They're still transition metals, but because they're found inside these different pairs of transition metals, we call them the inner transition metals. Now besides that, we can say that we sometimes refer to the transition metals also as group B elements. What does that mean? Well, that means we can further classify or label the groups 3 to 12. So group 3, we can now label as group 3B if we want. 4 would be 4B. This would be 5B, 6B, and 7B. Now here's the thing, groups 8, 9, and 10 are all grouped together as group 8B, and then group 11 is 1B and group 12 is 2B. It's a little bit weird that it goes in this order, but, again, knowing why exactly goes beyond the scope of this course, so don't worry about it. What's important is that our transition metals are group B elements. They're called transition metals because later on, we'll see that some of them have multiple charges. Representative elements themselves though, the representative elements are the remaining elements not found in groups 3 to 12. So we're talking about from group 13 to 18. They are sometimes referred to as our group A elements or our main group elements. So if they're talking about group A elements, main group elements, all that means is we're dealing with the representative elements. Group 1a can be classified as group 1A, group 2 would be 2A, group 13 would be 3A, and it will go all the way up to 8A. So this is just another way of looking at a particular group of the periodic table. Just remember when we talk about our groups we can further break it down into transition metals and representative elements. Our representative elements are sometimes referred to as our group A elements or main group elements, and our transition metal elements are referred to as our group B elements.
Periodic Table: Representative Elements & Transition Metals - Online Tutor, Practice Problems & Exam Prep
The Groups of the Periodic Table can be broken down into the Representative Elements and Transition Metals
Transition Metals & Representative Elements
Periodic Table: Representative Elements & Transition Metals
Video transcript
The Transition Metals can be found in Groups 3 to 12 with the remaining Groups being the Representative Elements.
Periodic Table: Representative Elements & Transition Metals Example 1
Video transcript
So here in this example question, it says, which of the following is a transition metal in the 5th period with similar chemical properties to copper, which is represented by the element symbol Cu. Alright. So they're telling us that it's a transition metal, so it has to be one of the elements shaded in red, then they tell us that it's in the 5th period. Remember, the 5th period means that it's in the 5th row of the periodic table, and then remember, you have similar chemical properties if you're in the same group. So we have to come up here, here goes copper Cu. Our element that we're looking for is in the 5th row, and it has to be a transition metal, so it has to be shaded in red, and most importantly, it has to be in the same column or group as copper. So following all that, we'd see that silver, which is Ag, would be our correct answer. So coming back down here that would mean that option C would be our correct choice. So just remember the difference between our transition metals and representative elements, when we're talking about periods, that's just the rows of the periodic table, and if you're in the same group you're going to have similar chemical properties.
Which of the following is a representative element, found in the 3rd Period, that is also a pnictogen.
State the element symbol found in the 6th Period and Group 7A.
