How do you rank these ions in order of decreasing size?

get rank
Grace J asked:

Rank the following atoms and ions
Li+, Be2+, He, H−, B3+
in order of decreasing size.

1. H−, He, Li+, Be2+, B3+
2. B3+, Be2+, Li+, He, H−
3. H−, Li+, He, Be2+, B3+
4. B3+, Be2+, He, Li+, H−
5. He, H−, Li+, Be2+, B3+

I don’t understand how you know because the number of electrons are the same.

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One Response to 'How do you rank these ions in order of decreasing size?'

  1. Sniffy - February 26th, 2010 at 2:49 pm

    Hi there,

    The number of electrons are the same, but the number of protons are different. The more protons there are, the more the electrons will be pulled in.

    So rank them in order of number of protons: you’ll find the answer is “1″.


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