The Reactivity of Metals and Their Discovery

Metals are elements that have certain properties and react with several different things. Some metals react with oxygen, some with water, some with hydrochloric acid, and several other things. Also, some elements react more readily than others, and they react at different speeds. Many metals are good conductors of heat and electricity, and they are malleable and ductile. Malleable means that the metal can be formed into a certain shape and it will stay in …

…to be discovered, because they are the most reactive, and Gold, Copper, and Silver were the first metals to be discovered because they are the least reactive, and so they are the easiest to find. It takes a lot more energy to extract Sodium from its ore, than it does to extract Copper from the blue-green rock. Although there are some exceptions, mostly, the metals, the more reactive they are, the later they were discovered.