Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Chemistry · specification 4CH1 · Paper 1 | Whole paper: Core content, all four topics · Free · no account needed
1(d) The Periodic Table (4CH1 specification)
How the table is organised, what a Group and a Period tell you, and why the noble gases do nothing.
Learn it on Incandio
The 2 Incandio pages that teach this — each explained in full, then proved in marked questions, taught back to an AI pupil and defended in a debate. Completely free.
- Electronic Configurations and the Periodic Table — Why the table has the shape it has: the group number IS the outer-shell electron count, and everything follows from that.
- Formulae and Balanced Equations — Why the ash weighs more than the metal, what balancing an equation is really doing, and how to add up a formula mass without losing a bracket.
The teaching route this belongs to: Topic 1 · Principles of chemistry (Chemistry) — the lessons in order, with every gate.
Specification coverage
Topic 1 Principles of chemistry (d) The Periodic Table — statements 1.22–1.26
Assessment objectives: AO1, AO2. Suggested learning time: 45 minutes.
Required knowledge
- The Periodic Table as an arrangement of elements in order of atomic number
- The meaning of Group and Period, and the link to electronic configuration
- The classification of elements as metals and non-metals, and where the division falls
- The relationship between Group number and number of outer electrons
- The unreactivity of the noble gases in terms of their electronic configurations
Required skills
- Predict an element's properties from its position
- Explain a trend using electronic configuration
How it is examined
- Multiple-choice and short-answer recall
- Application of the content to an unfamiliar context
- Extended open-response, marked on the quality of a connected explanation
Common mistakes
- Saying the table is ordered by relative atomic mass. It is ordered by atomic number — which is why tellurium precedes iodine.
- Explaining noble gas unreactivity as 'they are full' without naming the outer shell.
This page maps the specification. The pages above teach it, and the Chemistry lessons hold the whole course — completely free.