the.com/nonmetal
The periodic table's introverts — dull, brittle, and allergic to conducting electricity.
means An element that doesn't conduct heat or electricity well, isn't shiny or malleable, and tends to gain electrons rather than lose them in reactions.
from Straightforward chemistry-speak: the negating prefix 'non-' (from Latin, meaning 'not') bolted onto 'metal,' which traces back through Latin 'metallum' to Greek 'metallon,' meaning mine or quarry. So 'nonmetal' is literally just 'not that thing we dig out of mines and call metal' — a category defined mostly by what it refuses to be.
- element count
- only about 18 exist, metals vastly outnumber them
- location
- huddled in the upper right corner of the table
- life essential
- carbon, oxygen, nitrogen built every living thing
- physical state
- many are gases at room temperature, unlike metals