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One of the greatest strengths of the periodic table is its ability to reveal predictable patterns in the properties of elements. By understanding these periodic trends, you can anticipate an element's behaviour based solely on its position in the table — without needing to memorise the properties of every individual element.
The major trends across the periodic table are governed by two opposing forces:
As you move across a period (left to right), Z_eff increases because protons are added but electrons go into the same shell (minimal additional shielding). As you move down a group, new electron shells are added, increasing shielding and moving valence electrons further from the nucleus.
Atomic radius is a measure of the size of an atom, typically defined as half the distance between the nuclei of two bonded atoms of the same element.
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