Imagine you are given a mystery element. it is, however, a discovered and known element. you may perform a maximum of two observations or tests to determine its identity. time and money is critical, so you need to prioritize your tests. if you can get by with a single test, you get 100 super-geek points from your research lab team. pick your two tests, number them as #1 and #2, and justify why you think these two will certainly be enough (and why the first might well be enough all by itself.) the available tests are classification into metal, non-metal, or metalloid, count of valence electrons, count of electron shells, atomic radius (error range: +/- 1 pm), electronegativity (error range: +/- 0.1), first ionization energy (error range: +/- 10 kj/mole), melting point (error range: +/- 10 c), and boiling point (error range: +/- 20 c).

#1 atomic radius.

Explanation:

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In this case, since time and money are critical and additional points are given if one test is used, the best one would be the determination of the atomic radius including the error range of +/-1 pm. This lies on the fact that the atomic radius varies group-by-group by no less than 5 pm per element. For instance, nitrogen's atomic radius is about 56 pm and oxygen's one 48 pm (difference is more than 5pm), therefore, even with the associated error, such technique will be accurate in the light of the identification of the mysterious element with just one test.

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each chemical family is represented as a group or column on the periodic table. based on chemical properties, there are 6 types of chemical families. group 1 represents alkali metals, group 2 represents alkaline earth metals, groups 3 to 12 represent transition metals, groups 13 to 16 represent non-metals and other metals, group 17 represents halogens and group 18 represents noble gases.

the formula mass of a molecule or a compound is the sum of the atomic weights of the atoms in its empirical formula

(that's what i know about formula mass)