Block (periodic table) form compounds. The first period elements in this block, however, are nonmetals. Hydrogen is highly chemically reactive, like the other s-block elements, but helium is a virtually unreactive noble gas. S-block elements are unified by the fact that their valence electrons (outermost electrons) are in the s orbital. The s-orbital is a single spherical cloud which can contain only one pair of electrons; hence, the s-block consists of only two columns in the periodic table. Elements in column 1, with a single s-orbital valence electron, are the most reactive of the block. Elements in the second column have two s-orbital
History of the periodic table known as isotopes, from the Greek "" ("same place"). In 1914, a year before he was killed in action at Gallipoli, the English physicist Henry Moseley found a relationship between the X-ray wavelength of an element and its atomic number. He was then able to re-sequence the periodic table by nuclear charge, rather than by atomic weight. Before this discovery, atomic numbers were sequential numbers based on an element's atomic weight. Moseley's discovery showed that atomic numbers were in fact based upon experimental measurements. Using information about their X-ray wavelengths, Moseley placed argon (with an atomic number Z=18) before potassium