Why is the radius of a positive ion always less than the radius of its neutral atom??

Why is the radius of a positive ion always less than the radius of its neutral atom??

 

How do you get a positive ion?

An atom becomes a positive ion when it gives away electrons. Usually metals do this.

You remove some of the electrons giving it an overal positive charge.

 

 

The reason is because the remaining electrons feel a stronger force from the nucleus. What I mean is that imagine the nucleues gives out a certain amount of attracting force to the electrons, this is spread around all the electrons. When you remove electrons (making it a positive ion) there is more force 'per electron' so the electron is more attracted to the nucleus.

 

That is what causes the electrons to orbit closer to the nucelus.

Thanks^_^

Thanks^_^

No problem... I'm still confused by swansont's post.

No problem... I'm still confused by swansont's post.

 

Swansont's post was a perfect one. It simply tried to let the original poster think about why a positive ion would be smaller than a neutral atom. If you just go ahead and do homework for people, they won't learn squat and will keep coming back asking us to do their homework for them. Swanson was just trying to stimulate the poster's brain and get them to logically think through the problem and answer the question themselves.

 

(Now to the original poster, please don't take offense if you weren't here trying to get homework help. It's just that when school is in session we always see a LOT of people coming here and posting their homework questions without giving any effort into solving them on their own).