Question

Both carbon and silicon have 4 valence electrons how are the distinguished

Answer 1

as c is the first element of its group so it's size is small while si is larger than c which changes their chemical properties

Answer 2

Answer:1. Carbon is smaller in size than Silicon.

2. Carbon has high ionization enthalpy than silicon and lower electron gain enthalpy than Si!

Explanation:

It is placed in the periodic table before Silicon and lack a d-orbital smaller size due to which effective nuclear force on the valence shell is much higher than in Si!