Ph.D.,U.C.Santa Cruz
Teaching at a top-ranked high school in SF
She teaches general and chemistry at a top-ranked high school in San Francisco. Prior to that, she lead and published a number of research studies and lectured at SF State University.
The p-block elements are found on the right side of the periodic table. They include the boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and flourine families in addition to the noble gases. The noble gases have full p-orbital's and are nonreactive.
So let's peer into the periodic table again and discuss p-Block elements. So when I say p-Block elements I mean all those guys off to the right side of the periodic table that have p orbitals. So you want to remember that p orbitals looks something like what I have drawn here where they have 3 different orientations and space you can have px, py and pz right and that means that maximally you can have 6 electrons in your p orbitals.
And so the families that are included in the p orbital space are the boron family or group 3a, the carbon family or group 4a, the nitrogen family group 5a, the oxygen family group 6a, halogens group 7a and then our noble gases over here on the right.
And so while helium is technically included over here on the right it is a noble gas it does not have p orbitals that's something that's important for you to remember and I'm sure you'll recall that when thinking about how to write electronic configurations and that p orbital elements.