Elements within the same group of the periodic table behave similarly because they have the same number of ?

The elements in each group have the same number of electrons in the outer orbital. Or also called valence electrons. Khan academy has a great video online explaining why this happens. (It only happens for main group elements). Here is a link (sorry you can’t click it in https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/periodic-table/copy-of-periodic-table-of-elements/v/periodic-table-valence-electrons. Feel free to message me for a better explanation, I would explain now but I’m not sure how much you know about this. If you know how to write an electron configuration you can see how all the electron configurations for the same group (not the transitional metals only the main groups) have the same number of valence electrons. I hope that helped, sorry I was vague about the explanation :)

Spontaneity tell us the direction of the reaction, but not how fast it goes. gibbs free energy brings together enthalpy, entropy and temperature in one easy formula. g = h - ts. and, finally the sign of delta g is always negative for a spontaneous reaction.