Q:

Is "to the down of" correct

I was doing my chemistry homework and came across this sentence: "Atomic radius increases down and to the left of the periodic table."
It seems awkward to say "to the down of," but, because left and down are the same part of speech, is it grammatically correct?

A:

They are not the same part of speech as used in this sentence.
Down is an adverb describing the direction of motion: “it increases down the table.”
Left is an noun, as indicated by the definite article. To the left is an adverbial phrase.
To the down, making the adverb down into a noun, is incorrect.

