This General Science quiz on Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table puts 12 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic, 6 of them asked in real previous-year papers. Every question carries a full explanation of why the correct option is right and why the other options are wrong, so you learn the fact behind the answer rather than the letter. Attempt it right after reading the note, keep to the timer, and use the explanations at the end to mark what needs another look. Sit it again before the exam as a quick revision of the topic.
12 questions with answers and explanations
Who coined the word 'atom'?
The Greek philosopher Democritus, working in the fifth century before the common era, argued that matter could be divided only up to a limit, and he called that smallest indivisible particle atomos, from which the word atom comes.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following discovered the neutrons?
James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932 by bombarding beryllium with alpha particles and showing that the radiation produced consisted of neutral particles of nearly the same mass as the proton.
Read the full explanation →Rutherford's alpha-particle scattering experiment on a thin gold foil led to which conclusion?
Most alpha particles passed straight through the foil, a few were deflected through small angles and about one in twenty thousand bounced back.
Read the full explanation →The maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated in the M shell is:
The capacity of a shell is given by the formula 2n squared, where n is the number of the shell counted outward from the nucleus.
Read the full explanation →Alkali metals are assigned which group in the Modern Periodic Table?
The alkali metals are lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and francium. Each has a single electron in its outermost shell, loses it readily to form a positive ion, and therefore stands in group 1 of the modern periodic table.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following elements has the highest electronegativity?
Electronegativity is the tendency of an atom to attract a shared pair of electrons towards itself. It increases from left to right across a period, as nuclear charge grows, and decreases down a group, as each new shell puts the outer electrons further from the nucleus.
Read the full explanation →The modern periodic law states that the properties of elements are a periodic function of their:
Henry Moseley showed in 1913, from the frequencies of the X-rays that elements emit, that the atomic number, the number of protons in the nucleus, is the more fundamental property of an element.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the last element in the Newlands Law of Octaves classification?
John Newlands arranged the fifty-six elements known in 1866 in order of increasing atomic mass, beginning with hydrogen, the lightest, and ending with thorium, the fifty-sixth.
Read the full explanation →How many periods and groups are there in the modern periodic table?
The modern periodic table has seven horizontal rows, called periods, and eighteen vertical columns, called groups.
Read the full explanation →Isotopes of an element have the same:
Isotopes are atoms of the same element, so they have the same number of protons and therefore the same atomic number, but they carry different numbers of neutrons, which makes their mass numbers differ.
Read the full explanation →The plum pudding model of the atom, in which electrons are embedded in a sphere of positive charge, was proposed by:
After discovering the electron in 1897, J. J. Thomson pictured the atom as a sphere of positive charge with negatively charged electrons stuck in it, a picture often compared to plums in a pudding or seeds in a watermelon.
Read the full explanation →Mendeleev left gaps in his periodic table and predicted the properties of eka-boron, eka-aluminium and eka-silicon. These elements were later discovered as:
Mendeleev arranged the elements by increasing atomic mass in 1869 and left blank spaces where his pattern demanded an element that was not yet known.
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