Imagine a substance that is a red, shiny solid at room temperature, with a melting point of 115 °C. It is brittle and a poor conductor of heat. State whether this substance is a metal or a non-metal. Give a reason for your answer.

Explanation:

Metals and non-metals can be identified either by their position in the periodic table or by their properties.

he metal elements are found on the left hand side of the periodic table, and the non-metal elements are found on the right. You can imagine a zig-zag line, starting at B-Al-Si, separating metals from non-metals.

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explanation:

metals have excess of electrons whereas non-metals have deficiency of electrons. thus, in order to gain stability metals easily donate their electrons to the non-metals.

for example, electronic configuration of sodium is and electronic configuration of phosphorous is .

when a phosphorous atom and sodium atom combine together then sodium will donate is extra one electron to the phosphorous atom. as a result there will be formation of ionic bond between sodium and phosphorous.

the reaction will be as follows.

there, are three sodium sodium atoms and each of them will donate its one extra electron to phosphorous atom. thus, the sub-shell of phosphorous gets completely filled.  

thus, we can conclude that electrons are transferred from atoms of sodium to atoms of phosphorous. this transfer makes the sodium atoms donate one electron and the phosphorous atoms to gain one electron. as a result, the sodium and phosphorus atoms strongly attract each other.