Consider a different chemical reaction, with different chemicals, than the one carried out in this experiment. If you ran this
new chemical reaction and found that the temperature change was larger, to
what would you attribute the difference?

you need to take a look at the periodic system in order to sort these elements into pairs that would most likely exhibit similar chemical properties. first, you need to find elements that are found in the same group (groups are vertical in the periodic system), and then to see whether they have the same valence number. if they meet these criteria, they will have similar properties.

the first pair: ne (neon) and kr (krypton), are noble gases found in group 8

the second pair: li (lithium) and k (potassium), found in group 1

the third pair: s (sulfur) and te (tellurium), found in group 6