Question

Lithium resembles magnesium in some of its properties. Mention two such properties and give reasons for this resemblance.

Answer 1

Lithium has some properties which resemble the properties of the second element of Group $II,i.e.,$ magnesium.

This is known as a diagonal relationship in the periodic table.

Properties of diagonal relation of
Lithium and Magnesium

(i) Lithium and magnesium are both lighter and harder than the other metals in their respective groups.

(ii) Halides of both elements, $LiClandMgC{l}_2$ are soluble in ethanol.

(iii) Both lithium and magnesium form a nitride $L{i}_{3}NandM{g}_3{N}_2$  respectively.

The balanced chemical reactions are following:

$3Mg+N_2\to M{g}_3{N}_2$​.

$6Li+N_2\to 2L{i}_{3}N$

These two elements have similar properties (diagonal relationship) because of their similar atomic and ionic radii and similar charge to radius ratio.