Dr. Sam Rowe explains the periodic table

Maps help you work out where you are going. They use symbols and colours for the different features which represent the physical landscape. In a similar way, the periodic table helps to navigate you through the different properties of an element. The position of an element on the periodic table can help you predict some of the element's properties.

An element is a pure substance made up of only one type of atom. Elements are the building blocks of all matter, just like letters are the building blocks of all words. There are currently 118 known elements represented on the periodic table; some are found in nature and others are created in laboratories. Each little block on the periodic table represents one element. 

In this film, Dr. Sam Rowe provides an example of a metal, a non-metal and a metalloid. The three examples he highlights are copper, silicon and iodine. Can you work out which element belongs to each group?