Metals, Non-metals and Metalloids - Practice Questions & MCQ

The elements can be divided into three categories i.e, metals and non-metals and metalloids. Metals comprise more than 78% of all known elements and appear on the left side of the Periodic Table. Metals are usually solids at room temperature except mercury which is liquid at room temperature and even gallium and caesium also have very low melting points (303K and 302K. respectively). Metals usually have high melting and boiling points. They are good conductors of heat and electricity. They are malleable and ductile .

Non-metals are placed at the top right side of the Periodic Table. In a period, the property of elements change from metallic on the left to non-metallic on the right. Non-metals are usually solids or gases at room temperature with low melting and boiling points (boron and carbon are exceptions). They are poor conductors of heat and electricity. Most non- metallic solids are brittle and are neither malleable nor ductile. The elements become more metallic as we move from top to bottom in a group and the non- metallic character increases as we move from left to right in a period.

 There are some elements whose properties are in between the metals and non-metals. They are known as metalloids. There are a total of 8 metalloids in the periodic table i.e, boron(B), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), tellurium (Te), polonium (Po) and astatine (At).