Group 2 Elements: Alkaline Earth Metals

Group 2 comes immediately after Group 1 and comprises six elements — beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium and radium. All except beryllium are conventionally called the alkaline earth metals; beryllium is set apart because, much like lithium in Group 1, its exceptionally small size makes it behave quite differently from the rest of the group, showing instead a diagonal relationship to aluminium (§10.8.1). The general atomic and physical trends …