What can you infer about copper and silver based on their position relative to each other?
1 Answer
If by position, you mean in the Periodic table, and you are looking into the properties of the elements, the answer is "not a whole lot", as these are transition metals.
Explanation:
Unlike the main group elements (columns 1-2 and 13-18) where each column shows a family of elements with a different number of valence electrons, the transition metals differ in the number of d-electrons found in the electron shell that is just below the current valence shell for elements in that row. This causes the transition metals to show only minor variations in properties across a row, and makes attempts at finding similarities between elements in the same column a bit frustrating!
That said, it is true that silver and copper are two of the best metallic conductors of all metals (along with gold), and this can be somewhat attributed to there electron configurations, but you sure aren't looking at something like the halogens here!
