I was jus wondering........I have read many chemistry books throughout my life and taken numerous chemistry classes...but i have yet to have heard another name for the zigzag line which separates metals from nonmetals...doesnt "zigzag line" sound a little "unscientific"? im sure there is another name for it and if anybody knows please reply on this thread....thnx

i never really bothered to care enough; i just know the elements on either side. it's something like the metal-nonmetal staircase

It's called "the step"; it seperates the metals and nonmetals.

 

You should also notice it seperating Hydrogen and Lithium, since Hydrogen doesn't really fit with the other group 1 elements.

Yup. Pretty much anything to the left, or beneath, the line is a metal, and anything to the right, or above, the line is a non-metal. Those elements which are right on the line are typically considered as 'semi-metallic' substances such as antimony, silicon, germanium, tellurium, etc.

note to all: "metal" and "nonmetal" is really subjective. thats why i don't think of elements in such terms. for example, when i think of antimony, i think of a dark toxic solid with little luster. it gains a positive formal charge of +3 or +5 predominantly but can gain a negative formal charge of -3 predominantly. etc

when i think of silicon i think of carbon but with less potential to form huge molecules. i think of semiconductors. i think of 4 not-too-polar bonds. etc.

you are right but calling them metal and non-metal is fine

Is it necessary for us to study the chemistry nomenclature? The periodic table is very useful to show the structure of atoms, I think the purpose of introducing this table to us from our teacher mainly is this.

I was jus wondering........I have read many chemistry books throughout my life and taken numerous chemistry classes...but i have yet to have heard another name for the zigzag line which separates metals from nonmetals...doesnt "zigzag line" sound a little "unscientific"? im sure there is another name for it and if anybody knows please reply on this thread....thnx

 

 

Google says its called a metalloid line

 

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jan99/915517377.Ch.r.html

That's close to what I have known it as. I have called it the "metalloid stair step" or "stair case" but I don't really care. XP

thanx all for ur responses...i know its not a really important matter..but...sometimes..i jus wonder........how do they fight about what sounds more scientific in nomenclatures of biology..etc...and leave soemthing that sound as if a first grader named it.........again.......thnx.......and sorry for the two threads...