Chemistry Help Please?

[rebeccaaa]

Please could you tell me the answers to these questions and tell me why that's the answer?
1. An element "X" has the following properties,
-it's a gas
- it's not made up of molecules
- it doesn't react with other elements.
Which group is it likely to be in?
Group 0, 1, 2 or 7.
2 . Which of the following would react fastest with 2 moll^-1 hydrochloric acid?
Magnesium power or zinc powder.
Thanks:)

[argorstran]

1 - the clue is that it doesn't react with other elements and isn't a molecule
2 - not too sure about this one - it's 30 years since I was at school - but we learned something called the reactivity series .

[rebeccaaa]

Okay thanks, and I thought group 0 was called group 8 but I know now thanks:) and is the right side of the periodic table less reactive than the left?

[argorstran]

In my day the inert gases were group 8 .
Be careful - it is not the case that the right side of the periodic table is the more reactive , with metals it's usually (but not always) the other way round . We used to learn the reactivity series for metals - I don't know if they still teach it , but the metal higher up the reactivity series will react faster than one lower down .

[argorstran]

sorry *less , not more .

[argorstran]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactivity_series

[BrainFury]

I think the answer to question 1 depends which grouping system of elements you are using. Clearly the answer is the group of inert gases which is sometimes called Group 0 or Group 18:

http://www.ucc.ie/academic/chem/dolchem/html/group.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(periodic_table)#Groups

[rebeccaaa]

Thank you so much!:)