When looking across the periodic table from left to right, which of these groups are the first to contain nonmetals?

Question

group 2
group 7
group 14
group 18

Answer 1

When looking across the periodic table from left to right, the first group to contain nonmetals is Group 14. This group includes elements such as carbon (C), which is a nonmetal, alongside silicon (Si), which is a metalloid, and germanium (Ge), which is also a metalloid.

To clarify the other groups:

• Group 2 (alkaline earth metals) contains only metals.
• Group 7 (halogens) contains nonmetals starting with fluorine (F) and chlorine (Cl).
• Group 18 (noble gases) contains nonmetals.

However, Group 7 contains nonmetals like fluorine and chlorine, but they come after Group 14 in the periodic table. Therefore, Group 14 is the first group that introduces nonmetals.