![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/04\/alkali-metals.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLithium (Li)<\/h3>\n
Lithium is the lightest metal, with atomic number 3.\u00a0 It is so soft that it can be cut with a knife, although it is so reactive that it quickly oxidizes.\u00a0 It reacts with water to form lithium hydroxide (LiOH) in solution and free hydrogen.\u00a0 It is also very flammable, and is usually stored in petroleum jelly.\u00a0 Since lithium is so reactive, it is almost always found in various compounds.\u00a0 Lithium is used in batteries (including lithium-ion batteries), in ceramics and glass, in industrial lubricants, and as a catalyst in fusion reactions.<\/p>\n
Sodium (atomic number 11) and potassium (atomic number 19) are both fairly common elements.\u00a0 Both are even more reactive than lithium, and are also flammable.\u00a0 When sodium comes in contact with water, it produces flammable hydrogen and caustic sodium hydroxide.\u00a0 Therefore, it is usually stored in mineral oil.\u00a0 One of the most common compounds of sodium is table salt (NaCl), which is also an essential nutrient, necessary to plant and animal life.\u00a0 Potassium, its heavier cousin, is also essential to cell functioning.\u00a0 It forms similar chemical compounds to sodium.\u00a0 Potassium compounds are used in fertilizer, food, various dyes, and in potash.<\/p>\n Rubidium (atomic number 37), like the other alkali metals, is highly reactive, flammable, and only occurs naturally in compounds.\u00a0 It is used in atomic clocks and laser cooling. One isotope of rubidium has specialized medical applications, such as PET scans.\u00a0 Particular types of tumors contain more rubidium than normal tissue, so they can be detected and destroyed. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cesium or caesium (atomic number 55) is liquid at about 83 degrees F., although it is not found as pure metal naturally.\u00a0 If cesium comes in contact with water, it explodes, and is so flammable in air that it can catch fire spontaneously.\u00a0 However, atomic clocks that use cesium are so accurate that they lose less than a second in 1.4 million years.<\/p>\n Francium (atomic number 87) is radioactive, with a half-life of about 22 minutes.\u00a0 It is extremely rare because of its short half-life, and occurs naturally as a product of the decay of the element actinium.\u00a0 When francium was discovered in the laboratory, it was first mistaken for more common elements, but careful study by scientist Marguerite Perey showed it was a new element.\u00a0 Although she first isolated it in 1939, it has been synthesized by scientists since 1996 by bombarding a tiny gold target with beams of oxygen atoms emitted by a linear accelerator.<\/p>\n Interested in science tutoring services<\/a>? Learn more about how we are assisting thousands of students each academic year.<\/p>\n SchoolTutoring Academy<\/span> is the premier educational services company for K-12 and college students. We offer tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college. To learn more about how we help parents and students in Mountain Home, ID: visit Tutoring in Mountain Home, ID<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overview The alkali metals are in Group 1 of the periodic table.\u00a0 They include the elements lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), rubidium (Rb), cesium (Cs), and francium (Fr).\u00a0 These highly reactive elements form compounds easily and explosively.\u00a0 They all have one electron in their outermost shell, giving it up to form ionic compounds. Lithium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3905,3910,3911,3906,3908,3909,3907],"class_list":["post-8901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","tag-alkali-metals","tag-cesium","tag-francium","tag-lithium","tag-potassium","tag-rubidium","tag-sodium"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nSodium (Na) and Potassium (K)<\/h3>\n
Rubidium (Rb) and Cesium (Cs)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nFrancium (Fr)<\/h3>\n