What is the diameter of a potassium atom?
152 pm
152 pm is the ion radius, double it for diameter.
x2 or square it?
To determine the diameter of a potassium atom, we need to know the atomic radius of potassium. The atomic radius is typically defined as half the distance between the centers of two atoms when they are in contact with each other.
In the case of potassium, the atomic radius can be found on the periodic table. The atomic radius is given as 227 picometers (pm) or 2.27 angstroms (Å).
To convert from picometers to meters, we divide by 10^12, and to convert from angstroms to meters, we divide by 10^10. Therefore, the atomic radius of potassium is approximately 2.27 × 10^(-10) meters.
Since the atomic radius represents the distance from the center to the edge of the atom, to calculate the diameter, we simply multiply the atomic radius by 2.
Hence, the diameter of a potassium atom is approximately 4.54 × 10^(-10) meters.