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This is where we get a little understanding of why the periodic table is structured the way it is. The noble gases, on the farthest right, are stable elements in and of themselves, with the right number of atomic particles in their electrons to not need binding to another element to stay stable. (Stable, in this case, means having the ideal number of electrons in the outermost shell-2, then 8, then 18, then 32... don't know more than that, I'm not a chemist.) All elements on the table are arranged against those noble gases- elements with atomic number immediately beneath them need that many electrons bonded from some other atoms to stabilize, while elements with atomic numbers immediately above need that many electrons shed to stabilize... and, to wrap this back to the question asked, the more atoms needed to be shed or be accrued, the more unstable- and reactive- an element is.

This is why phosphorous, with an atomic number of 15, is more reactive than chlorine, with an atomic number of 17: Chlorine needs only gather a single electron to bond to for stabilization, while Phosphorous needs three.

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Anonymous

5y ago

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