What are Metals that are less reactive than alkali metals and alkaline-earth metals called

Transition metals are less reactive than alkali metals because of their high ionization potential and high melting point.

On moving from left to right of the periodic table for every period, electrons fill in the same shell or orbital, with the alkali metals having the least filled outermost shells, one electron, which equates to fewer protons in them.

Consequently, they have a lesser attraction power from the nucleus, whereas, the corresponding transition metals of the same period have more protons interacting with electrons at the same distance, far from the nucleus as the alkali metals.

The first ionization energies (I1) of the alkaline earth metals are not as low as the alkali metals. The alkaline earth metals are therefore less reactive than the alkali metals (Be and Mg are the least reactive of the alkaline earth metals). Several physical properties of these elements are compared in Table 7.7.

assuming that your periodic table has eighteen columns, you should highlight   the four elements in the third column from the left of the table.

neutral atoms of elements after calcium contain d electrons. the energy of d orbitals of a particular main shell lies between the energy of the s and p orbitals of the next main shell. for example, electrons in the have energy higher than those in the orbital while lower than those of the orbital.

by the aufbau principle, electrons fill orbitals one at a time, starting from those of the lowest energy. the orbital is therefore filled right after orbitals and before orbitals.  

potassium has electron configuration and calcium . the s orbital of a main shell holds a maximum of two electrons. the next element would thus have the electron configuration and satisfy the requirements.

a neutral atom of the element contains three electrons on top of the most recent noble gas element. it should thus be placed in the third column of the periodic table. both scandium and yttrium would satisfy the conditions. an aufbau diagram indicates that the 4f orbital is filled before the 5d. however, it appears that exceptions exists for both lanthanum and actinium. neutral atoms of the two d-block elements also demonstrate the and should be highlighted as well.