What would be different in your observations between Na and K?

Answer 1

Well, melting point for one..........

Furthermore, potassium has a far lower melting point than sodium, and potassium metal is much softer than sodium metal.

And chemically (not that you will be allowed to do this test!), potassium metal is a lot more reactive. Treat potassium with #25%# IPA in toluene, and the metal oxidize and give off dihydrogen gas. Sodium will be fairly inert in #25%# IPA in toluene, and react quite sluggishly.

However, potassium will cause a violent reaction and a few flames, while sodium metal will react with ethanol fairly strongly.

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Answer 2

Ellie Andrews

Sodium (Na) and potassium (K) can be observed differently, for example, in their flame test colors (yellow for sodium, lilac for potassium), in their reactivity with water (potassium reacts even more violently than sodium does), and in their appearance (potassium is a softer, more shiny metal than sodium).

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.