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Ch.11 - Liquids and Intermolecular Forces

Chapter 11, Problem 22e

True or false: (e) The larger the atom, the more polarizable it is.

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Hello everyone today, we are being asked to determine which of the following statements is true. So the correct statement is a. The polarize ability of an atom increases as the atom size increases. Indeed, this is true because molecules that have a similar, so we'll say similar molecular weight and they are linear will have greater will say increased contact around surfaces. And this is known as polarize ability. So polarize ability can also be known or defined as the ability to distort an electron cloud. And so when you have these linear molecules, you have the greater contact along their surfaces and their electron clouds are thus more polarized able, which is going to increase their dispersion forces. So we're going to say finally, that increase increases their dispersion forces. I hope this helped. And until next time.