Using Clues to Identify Elements

Question

Elements 2, 5, 18, 29, and 33 are colorless, odorless, unreactive gases. Of these gases, element 29 has the largest atomic mass.
Elements 13, 19, 23, and 34 have six valence electrons, and element 13 is a metalloid.
Elements 9, 14, 16, and 21 are highly reactive metals in the same group. Of these metals, element 16 is the least reactive.
Elements 1, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 24, and 29 are in the same period.
Elements 11, 26, 27, and 28 have three valence electrons.
Elements 1, 4, 6, and 30 are found in the same group. Element 6 is in chlorophyll molecules.
Elements 10, 22, 24, and 32 are in the same group. Element 22 is a liquid at room temperature.
Elements 2, 10, 15, and 34 are nonmetals in the same period.
Elements 7, 15, 17, and 25 are in the same group. Of these, only element 7 is a gas at room temperature.
Elements 12, 20, and 26 are metalloids. Elements 20 and 12 are in the same group.
Element 30 is important to maintain strong bones and teeth.
An atom of element 21 has one more proton than an atom of element 2.
Elements 3 is a nonmetal with one valence electron.
Element 27 is the most abundant metal in Earth’s crust.
Element 31 is a solid at room temperature. Most of the compounds in your body contain this element.
Element 18 has two electrons.
Element 33 has a smaller atomic mass than element 5.
Element 32 is the most reactive nonmetal.
Element 20 and element 19 are combined in a compound found in glass.
Glass that contains element 26 does not shatter easily.
Element 19 is the most abundant element in Earth’s crust

Answer 1

Oh boy, that is quite a puzzle.

 

Solving this entire thing would require a lot of explanation, but I believe that I can lead you in the right direction.

 

The first line "Elements 2, 5, 18, 29, and 33 are colorless, odorless, unreactive gases. Of these gases, element 29 has the largest atomic mass." Give you information about a group in the periodic table since the properties are the same. The sentence must be talking about the noble gases since they fit the description. Now determining which one is which is not going to be possible, except for one of them (kinda). The last sentence tells you that that element 29 has the highest mass... thus it must be either Xe or Rn (there are six noble gases, but only 5 numbers are given, so one noble gas is skipped). What you should do is get a bunch of little papers with the numbers 2, 5, 18, 29, and 33 and place them above the noble gas group on a periodic table.

 

The get specific elements, you will need to look at the statements that only describe one element... for example, "Element 18 has two electrons" must be the element with an atomic number of 2, or helium... well that matches the information from the previous paragraph (the noble gases), so you know that the first paragraph was indeed describing the noble gases since He is a noble gas... so now tape you little paper with a 2 on it on top of helium in your periodic table.

 

Keep going like that, one sentence at a time and you will be able to sort out what is what.

 

I hope this helps get you started.