Present a comparative account of the alkali and alkaline earth metals with respect to the following charactieristics.
(i) Tendency to form ionic / covalent compounds
(ii) Nature fo oxides and their solubility in water
(iii) Formation of oxosalts
(iv) Solubility of oxosalts.
(v) Thermal stability of oxosalts.
(a) Giving one example each, state what is (i) ionic compounds, and (ii) covalent compounds. (b) Compare the properties of ionic compounds and covalent compounds.