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by freshair 1863 days ago
Is this the reason Hydrogen is grouped with the alkali metals on the periodic table?
1 comments

The most immediate reason is that hydrogen is a group 1 element, meaning its outer (in this case, only) shell contains just a single electron, in its s (spherically symmetric) orbital.

The electronic structure of an element greatly influences its chemical behavior, so elements in the same group tend to be chemically similar. However, hydrogen is a bit of an odd-ball as group 1 elements go.