In the periodic table, you can see a stair-stepped line starting at Boron (B), atomic number 5, and going all the way down to Polonium (Po), atomic number 84. Except for Germanium (Ge) and Antimony (Sb), all the elements to the left of that line can be classified as metals. The elements that border the stair-stepped line are classified as metalloids. The metalloids, or semimetals, have properties that are somewhat of a cross between metals and nonmetals.
