A teacher added some of the Group 1 elements to separate samples of water.
State two observations that could be made when a small piece of lithium is added to a large trough containing water.
In another experiment, she added a small piece of a different Group 1 element and noticed that the reaction was more vigorous, with the metal melting into a ball but not immediately catching fire. Which element did she add in this experiment?
In another experiment, she added a small piece of sodium to a large trough containing water. Under certain conditions, she observed a yellow-orange flame. (i) Identify the gas that burned. (ii) Give the formula of the ion that caused the flame to be yellow-orange.
When the Group 1 elements react with water, each of their atoms loses an electron from its outer shell. For lithium and sodium, these processes can be represented by the equations:
Li→Li++e− \text{Li} \rightarrow \text{Li}^+ + \text{e}^- Li→Li++e− Na→Na++e− \text{Na} \rightarrow \text{Na}^+ + \text{e}^- Na→Na++e−Explain, by referring to the electronic configurations of lithium and sodium, why sodium is more reactive than lithium.
