Period (periodic table) eighth period. Period (periodic table) A period in the periodic table is a horizontal row. All elements in a row have the same number of electron shells. Each next element in a period has one more proton and is less metallic than its predecessor. Arranged this way, groups of elements in the same column have similar chemical and physical properties, reflecting the periodic law. For example, the alkali metals lie in the first column (group 1) and share similar properties, such as high reactivity and the tendency to lose one electron to arrive at a noble-gas electronic configuration. As of
Element-reactant-product table reaction equation is not balanced, it needs coefficients to show equality. Here is an example with the separation of natural gas from hydrochloric acid using magnesium.<br> Mg + HCl = MgCl + H <br>Here is the element-reaction-product table:<br> From this table we see that the number of hydrogen and chlorine atoms on the product's side are twice the number of atoms on the reactant's side. Therefore, we add the coefficient "2" in front of the HCl on the products side, to get our equation to look like this:<br> Mg + 2HCl = MgCl + H<br> and our table looks like