Period 1 element

A period 1 element is one of the chemical elements in the first row (or period) of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate periodic (recurring) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The first period contains fewer elements than any other row in the table, with only two: hydrogen and helium. This situation can be explained by modern theories of atomic structure. In a quantum mechanical description of atomic structure, this period corresponds to the filling of the 1s orbital. Period 1 elements obey the duet rule in that they need two electrons to complete their valence shell. The maximum number of electrons that these elements can accommodate is two, both in the 1s orbital. Therefore, period 1 can have only two elements.

All other periods in the period table contain at least 8 elements, and it is often helpful to consider periodic trends across the period. However, period 1 contains only two elements, so this concept does not apply here.

In terms of vertical trends down groups, helium can be seen as a typical noble gas at the head of Group 18, but as discussed below, hydrogen's chemistry is unique and it is not easily assigned to any group.

Although both hydrogen and helium are in the s-block, neither of them behaves similarly to other s-block elements. Their behaviour is so different from the other s-block elements that there is considerable disagreement over where these two elements should be placed in the periodic table.

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