**** Grouping ***
 

please help - i have a science exam and dont quite understand the grouping of the elements. in my text book it has five groups but on the net it says there are eighteen!?! :?:

also, what group are the transition metals in??? i have read that they arent actually in a group!?! that cant be right...

help im really confused :shock:

Take a look at these articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table_group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_metal

I don't know what your textbook means by there being five groups. Would you write out the sentence(s) where it says that?

What my TeXtBoOk says
 

thaks for the links... :D

i dont actually have my textbook with me but the periodic table in it has five groups - the first being alkali metals, second alkaline earth metals, then it skips the transition metals and goes to the third group with boron, aluminium etc, and so on... It states that to work out the valencies of the elements to refer to the groupings. However, it does not explain what groups the transition metals are in. :roll: I have read on the net that there are subgroups which the transition metals are contained in like 1B, 2B... is that right???

thanx :wink: