Atomic Radius [C]

Question 1

What is Atomic Radius? How is it calculated?

Answer 1

Atomic Radius is half of the distance between the nucleus of two bonding atoms

Question 2

What is the trend for atomic radius?

Answer 2

Increases down the group and decreases across a group

Question 3

What is the reason for the trends of atomic radius?

Answer 3

It decreases across the period because the added protons pulls more on the electrons, but there us no extra shielding effect

It increases down a group because the extra shells have a shielding effect from the charge

Question 4

What is the trend for transition metals’ radius, why?

Answer 4

They decrease initially and increase after.

This is because the nuclear charge gets balanced by the extra shielding of the 3d sub shell.