Question

How does the number of:

valency vary on moving from left to right in the second period of the periodic table?

Answer 1

Valency is determined by the number of valence electrons. For elements belonging to group 1, 2 and 13, the valency is equal to the number of valence electrons, so their valency is 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Since the elements in group 14 to 17 needs to gain electrons to complete their octet configuration. Their valency is 8 minus the number of valence electrons. So their valencies are 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively.