Metals have shiny surfaces and are good conductors of electricity; they have high boiling and melting points, they are strong and can hold heavy loads without breaking, they are malleable as they can be hammered into many different shapes without breaking, they are ductile which means that they can be drawn out to make wires. They also can react with oxygen to form an oxide. Magnesium burns in air like this:
Magnesium + oxygen = magnesium oxide
(Silvery metal) (White ash)
Metal oxides are bases, which means that they can neutralise acids; forming salts.
Non-metals are very different from metals,
They are poor conductors of electricity and have lower boiling and melting points than metals, they are not strong as when they are hammered they break up, also they are not malleable or ductile and have low densities. Like metals they react with oxygen to form oxides.
Sulphur + oxygen = sulphur dioxide.
They do not make bases! Mmost of them dissolve in water to give acidic solutions; the rest being insoluble in water.
By Nuala Kealey, Chemistry Department, Loreto College, Coleraine.