@jamey metal is everything that's not hydrogen or helium

@IngaLovinde @jamey yeah it depends a lot on what properties you are looking for

@charlotte @IngaLovinde yeah, I see that metal isn't an inherent property of an element so much as something elements do under different circumstances—even hydrogen, if you try hard enough, apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

at the moment the properties I care about are when carbonates can turn into oxides and vice versa, and what had surprised me was when a paper I was trying to read said that all metals can do this. I was surprised that for example calcium is a metal, and that chalk and rust are closely related substances