Trends in Melting Points of Metals

As a general rule, metals on the left side of the periodic table and metals on the right side tend to have a lower melting point than metals located toward the middle of the table. 

alkali metals (with a melting point from 29 C to isrc [84°F to 358 F]), alkaline earths (700°C to 839°C [1292°F to 1542°F]), and post-transition metals (30 C to 328 C [86°F to 622°F]) generally melt at a relatively low temperature for metals. (Exceptions are beryllium and aluminum, which have properties that are more like each other than like the other metals in their families.) Two familiar post-transition metals are tin and lead. Their low melting point is taken advantage of in the use of tin in solder and in the use of lead in bullets. 

Thomas Edison did not actually invent the electric lightbulb. What he did succeed in doing was to invent the first lightbulb that was durable enough to be commercially successful. 

Other high-melting metals tend to be located near tungsten—zirconium, hafnium, molybdenum, technetium, rhenium, ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, iridium, and platinum—and have a melting point that ranges from 1,772°C to 3,180°C (3,222°F to 5,756°F). 

As stated earlier, the periodic table of the elements is the single most important unifying principle in chemistry. Chemistry students and chemistry practitioners alike refer to the periodic table constantly as they seek to understand the properties of the elements and the compounds that they form. 

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