Atomic radius and periodicity
Level
pending
As you move along a period in the periodic table what happens to the atomic radius.
It stays the same
There is no correlation between moving across the period and the atomic radius
It increases
It decreases
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1 solution
As you move across a period of the periodic table there is an increase in the number of protons the element possesses. Protons are positively charged sub-atomic particles that create an electrostatic force in the atom. Protons have a positive charge of +1 due to the fact that they are composed of two up quarks and one down quark. An up quark has a charge of +2/3 and a down quark has a charge of -1/3. Thus 2/3+2/3=4/3 and 4/3-1/3= 3/3 which equals 1. Anyway back to the answer, the atomic radius decreases due to the fact that the increase in protons results in an increase in electrostatic force meaning that the electrons orbiting the nucleons have an increase in attraction to the nucleus meaning that the atomic radius decreases as the electrons are pulled closer to the nucleus.