How do you think the number of valence electrons relates to an element's chemical properties?

Electrons in the outermost shell are called valence electrons, because it is their interactions that determine the chemical properties of an element. The columns that were set up to group elements by similar chemical properties turn out to be the exact same columns defined by the number of valence electrons.

the dependant variable is spilled water

the independent is the heat

the temperature of the gas, in k, not celsius.