Common metal objects. Image credit blogspot.com
ZIMSEC O Level Combined Science Notes: Experiment: Properties of Metals and Non-Metals
- Elements can be divided into two groups:
- Metals and Non-metals
- Examples of metals are: copper, zinc, iron, gold, silver, chrome, lead and tin
- Almost all metals have certain properties that makes them useful to people’s everyday lives
- Below are differences between metals and non-metals
| Metals | Non-metals |
|---|---|
| Good conductors of heat and thus used in making pots, pans etc | Are usually not good conductors of heat and thus used as elements |
| Are good conductors of electricity and are thus used in making electrical gadgets and electric wires | Are not good conductors of electricity and thus some are used as insulators |
| They are ductile i.e. can be pulled into wires and thus they are used to make wires for all sorts of purposes including in the electricity industry | They are not ductile |
| They are malleable which means they can be hammered into different shapes e.g. roofing sheets | Brittle (they break or shatter when hammered) |
| Are strong in tension, compression and are thus used as construction materials | Are usually weaker especially in tension |
| They can be used to make alloys such as brass | It is usually not possible to make alloys our of non-metals |
| They have a lustre(they are shiny) | Are almost always dull |
| Have a higher density | Have a lower density |
| Are sonorous | Are usually not sonorous |
| Are solids at room temperature except mercury which is a liquid | Half are solids, almost half are gases and one (bromine) is a liquid |
- Elements that are dull in appearance, do not conduct electricity well, are not ductile or malleable are almost always non-metals
- The tensile strength of materials is measured by finding out the amount of force that is required to break the material
- This can be done by applying a pulling force to a material until it breaks
- The tensile strength of metals is generally higher than that of non-metals
- This is because metals are ductile
To access more topics go to the Combined Science Notes page.
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