Question

What are the difficulties in determining atomic radius?

Answer 1

• The size of an atom is very small (∼ 1.2Å i.e 1.2 × 10¹⁰ ) 
• The atom is not a rigid sphere; it is more like a spherical cotton ball rather than like a cricket ball. 
• It is not possible to isolate an atom and measure its radius. 
• The size of an atom depends upon the type of atoms in its neighborhood and also the nature of bonding between them.