Metals and Non Metals

The elements on the left side of the periodic table (except hydrogen) are
metals. The most reactive metals are in group 1. Group : Down, Period : →.

Properties of metals

-​ Metals are shiny as their -​ Metals do not shatter, they

surface reflects light are not brittle
-​ Metals conduct heat and -​ Metals are malleable
electricity -​ Metals are ductile
-​ Metals have a high melting and -​ Some metals are magnetic
boiling point -​ Most metals are solid in room
temperature
-​ Lustre (Shiny)
-​ Sonorous (makes a ringing
sound when struck)
The elements on the right side of the periodic table are non metals. The
most reactive non metals are in Group 17.

Properties of Non metals :

-​ Non metals are dull as their surface doesn’t reflect light
-​ Most non metals don't conduct heat and electricity (Exception ;
Graphite)
-​ Most non metals are gas at room
-​ Gas non metals have a low melting and boiling point
-​ Solid non metals are brittle

Comparing Metals and Non

metals
Sample table for electrical conductivity experiment of metals and
non metals

Metal Mixtures
Metal mixtures are called alloys. Alloys are made by mixing different metals
together and melting them. The atoms of the different metals mix but do not
bond together. The properties of the alloys are different from the metals they
contain. Bronze is an alloy made by mixing copper and tin. Bronze is harder
than either copper or tin. Steel is an alloy, but an unusual one because one of
the elements in the mixture is not a metal, steel is a mixture of iron and
carbon. Pure iron is not hard enough to be very useful but when it is mixed
with other elements to form steel, it is much harder. The reasons why alloys
have different properties from the pure metal is to do with the arrangement of
the particles of the elements.

Pure metal vs Alloy

Pure metal : When a force is applied, layers slide over one another easily.

Alloy : The layers of atoms cannot slide over each other easily now. This
makes the alloy a lot harder and stronger than the original metal.

Alloys in everyday life :

1.​ Coins :
-​ Coins are made from alloys. Pure metals are too soft to withstand
all the wear that they go through. The coins that look silver are not
made of silver - it is too soft and far too expensive. THe silver
coins are made of alloys containing copper and nickel. The copper
 coins contain copper, zinc and tin. Coins must be hard wearing but
also malleable enough to be stamped with complex patterns.
2.​ Jewellery
-​ Most gold jewellery is not pure gold : it is an alloy of gold and
copper. Pure gold is soft, if you used pure gold for something like
a wedding ring (that is worn often) it would wear away. Pure gold
is 24 carat : that means that 24 parts out of 24 parts are gold. 18
carat gold has 18 parts out of 24 pure gold and six parts of other
metals such as copper, silver or zinc.
3.​ Aeroplanes
-​ The metal used to build planes needs to be light but very strong.
Planes are mainly made of aluminium, but pure aluminium would
not be strong enough and the plane's wings would fall off because
of the great stress put on them during flight. By adding magnesium
and copper, an alloy called duralumin is formed. Duralumin is about
5x stronger than pure aluminium.
4.​ Artificial Joints
-​ The joints in our bodies take a lot of wear and tear. Sometimes
the joints are attacked by arthritis which is a very painful and
crippling disease. Now people can be fitted with replacement joins.
These are made of plastic and alloys, often alloys of titanium.
5.​ Modern alloys
-​ Modern alloys have been developed that have some very useful
properties. Some glasses frames are made of shape memory
alloy. If this alloy is bent, it will go back to its original shape by being
heated. This alloy is called Nitinol. Nitinol is made of nickel and
titanium.
BRASS

Bronze
Using the properties of materials to separate mixtures

a set of equipment or tools or a machine that is used for a particular purpose:

a piece of apparatus.

Making Mixtures
Mixtures contain different substances that are not combined together
chemically. An example of a mixture is iron filings and sulfur. You can separate
the iron and sulfur in your mixture by using a magnet. You used the difference
in the properties of iron and sulfur to separate them, Iron is magnetic ; sulfur
is not.

Separating Mixtures

i) Separating Mixtures

ii) Food dye and Water

A mixture of food dye and water can be separated using a condenser. The
mixture is heated until the water boils and turns into steam. The steam travels
through a tube into the condenser. Cold water circulates around the outside of
the condenser cooling the steam. The steam condenses back into liquid water.
The liquid water collects in a beaker. The food dye remains in the original
heated container. The separation works because water and food dye have
different boiling points.

iii) Separating Sandy water

Iv) Salty Water

v) Separating two solids

Acids and Alkalis

Acids are a type of chemical substance with the properties :

-​ PH value less than 7
-​ Tastes sour
-​ Corrosive (burns skin and destroys metal)
-​ Turns blue litmus paper to red
-​ Reacts with metals to produce hydrogen gas and a salt
Akalis are a type of chemical substance with the properties :
-​ Ph value more than 7
-​ Tastes bitter
-​ Corrosive (burns skin and destroys metal)
-​ Turns red litmus to blue
-​ Does not react with metals

A hazard is a potential source of danger. Chemical substances can be

Hazardous This is why labelling and hazard symbols are crucial for laboratory
safety.
Indicators and the PH scale

Natural indicators are present naturally and we extract them from natural
sources such as rose, periwinkle, red spinach and red cabbage.
Red cabbage ph scale

Universal indicator is used to show how strongly acidic or alkaline a solution is,
not just if a solution is acidic or alkaline. An alkali can also be called a base

Sound Waves
🔊 What is Sound?

●​ Sound is made when something vibrates.

●​ These vibrations move the air around them.

●​ The moving air creates sound waves.​
🌬️ How Sound Travels

●​ When an object (like a speaker) vibrates, it pushes air particles forward.

●​ The air particles move back and forth.

●​ These moving particles hit other particles, passing the vibration forward.
●​ This creates a sound wave.

●​ The wave travels through the air to your ear.

●​ Your ear picks up the vibration, and your brain understands it as sound.

📌 Speed of sound in air = 343 metres per second.

🌊 What Kind of Wave is Sound?

●​ Sound travels in longitudinal waves.

○​ Particles move back and forth, not up and down.​

●​ The wave is made of:

○​ Compressions (particles squished together)
○​ Rarefactions (particles spread apart)​

⚡ Where Can Sound Travel?

●​ Sound needs particles to move through, so it can travel in:

○​ Solids (fastest)
○​ Liquids
○​ Gases (slowest)
●​ Sound cannot travel in space because there are no particles there.​

👂 How Do We Hear Sound?

 1.​ Sound waves enter the ear.

2.​ The eardrum vibrates.

3.​ The vibrations go through tiny bones in the ear.

4.​ They reach the cochlea, which sends signals to the brain.

5.​ You hear the sound.

🔉 Loudness and Pitch

●​ Loudness:

○​ Depends on the size of the vibration (amplitude).

○​ Bigger vibration = louder sound.​

●​ Pitch:

○​ Depends on how fast the vibration is (frequency).

○​ Fast vibration = high pitch (like a whistle).
○​ Slow vibration = low pitch (like a drum).

🌐 Echoes

●​ When sound hits a hard surface, it bounces back.

●​ This is called an echo.​

🛡️ Take Care of Your Ears

●​ Loud sounds can damage your hearing.

●​ Use ear protection or keep the volume low.​

Reflections Of Sound
Reflected : a wave is reflected when the wave meets a surface and bounces
off that surface.
Echo : a reflected sound wave

🏀 Sound Reflection is Like a Bouncing Ball

●​ All waves can be reflected, including sound waves.

●​ Sound reflection is like bouncing a ball on a wall.
○​ The wave hits the surface and comes back.
●​ Sound reflects best from surfaces that are:​

○​ Smooth
○​ Flat
○​ Hard

✅ Good surfaces for reflection:

●​ Glass ●​ Flat metal
●​ Tiles ●​ Smooth concrete

👏 Clapping and Echo

●​ When you clap your hands, you create a sound wave.

●​ This wave travels in all directions.
●​ If the wave hits a wall, it bounces back to you.
●​ The bounced-back sound is called an echo.
●​ The echo makes the clap sound last longer and fade away.

🎧 An echo is just a reflected sound.

Useful echos :

i) Bats use echoes to find insects for food. The bat makes a sound, the
sound wave reflects off the insect. The bat can work out where the insect is
from the time taken for the echo to reach the bat and the direction it comes
from.
ii)Boats can use echoes to find the depth of the water under the boat. A
sound is sent from the bottom of the boat, the sound travels through the water
and reflects off the solid ground and an echo comes back to the boat. The
time taken for the echo to come back can be used to work out the depth.

iii) Medical Ultrasounds

Unwanted echos :

i) When recording music. An echo can spoil the recording. Studio recording walls
are made in a certain way to prevent echos

ii) In a theatre the audience has to hear the voices of the people on stage, if
there were echos, the voices would not be clear. Theatres are designed to
stop echos. Theatres usually have no large flat surfaces that could cause
echos. The shapes on the walls are made to stop echoes.

Structure of the Earth

What we know about the earth :
-​ The earth is about 4500 Million years old
-​ The earth has a crust of solid rock
-​ Under the crust is the mantle, which is molten (hot liquid) rock that can
flow.
-​ In the centre of the earth is the core. It is made of the metals nickel and
iron.
-​ The outer core is molten
-​ The inner part of the core is solid
-​ The rocks found in the crust contain metals and non metals.

In 1912, a German scientist named Alfred Wegener suggested that, millions of

years ago, all land was one large continent. Over millions of years, the land
broke up and drifted apart. This idea is called continental drift. His evidence for
this idea was that:

-​ The shapes of the continents fit together

-​ The types of rock on the different continents match up where they fit
together.
-​ The fossils on the different continents match up where they fit together.
However, Wegener could not explain how continental drift happened, so not
everyone believed his ideas.

The earth is made up of big pieces called tectonic plates. Some plates
are under the oceanic plates. Some of the plates form the continents,
they are called continental plates. These tectonic plates move slowly on
the liquid rock called magma beneath them. Plates move about 4cm/year
which is about the same speed as your fingernails grow.

Changes in the Earth

Geological change is the process that alters the Earth's surface and
structure over time through forces like erosion, volcanoes, and
earthquakes.

The places where tectonic plates meet are called plate boundaries.
Geological change happens most frequently at plate boundaries. This is
because the tectonic plates are always moving.
Convergent Boundary (colliding plates) : A convergent boundary happens when 2
tectonic plates move toward each other and collide. This is called subduction
and can create volcanoes, deep ocean trenches and fold mountains.

Divergent boundary (Separating Plates) : A divergent boundary happens when 2

tectonic plates move apart from each other. This can cause magma (molten
rock) rises from below the earth's surface, cools and forms new land.

Transform boundary (Sliding plates) : a transform boundary happens when 2

tectonic plates slide past each other in opposite directions. This movement
creates friction and builds up energy. When the energy is released, it causes
earthquakes.

**Volcanoes**
- Form at plate boundaries when magma rises through cracks in Earth's crust.
- **Magma** = liquid rock underground; **lava** = liquid rock on the surface.
- Eruptions create lava flows and ash, which harden into new rock, making the
volcano grow over time.
- **Types of eruptions**:
- Gentle (thin magma) → lava flows.
- Violent (thick magma + gas) → explosions, avalanches, or tsunamis (if near
sea).
- **Volcano states**:
- **Active**: Can erupt anytime.
- **Dormant**: No recent eruptions.
- **Extinct**: Will not erupt again.
Earthquakes
- Range from tiny (detected only by instruments) to massive (causing severe
damage).
- Magnitude depends on:
- Size of faults at plate boundaries.
 - Distance rocks move during the quake (up to tens of meters in seconds).
- Can destroy roads, buildings, and landscapes.

SOlar and Lunar Eclipses

### **Shadows**
- Form when an **opaque object** (like the Moon or Earth) blocks light.
- Light travels in straight lines (**rays**); shadows appear where light is blocked.

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### **Solar Eclipses**

- **Cause**: The Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow
on Earth.
- **Types**:
- **Total eclipse**: The Moon fully blocks the Sun (only in the shadow’s
center).
- **Partial eclipse**: The Moon partly blocks the Sun (at the shadow’s edges).

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### **Lunar Eclipses**
- **Cause**: Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow on
the Moon.
- **Why rare?** The Moon’s orbit is tilted; eclipses only happen when all three
align perfectly.

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*Key terms*: **opaque** (blocks light), **shadow** (dark area), **rays** (light
paths).
*Fun fact*: Solar eclipses are daytime events; lunar eclipses are nighttime
events!🌑🌍☀️