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
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