Question

Approximately what is the radius of a copper atom? Is it $\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\times }{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{15}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{m}$, $\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\times }{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{12}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{m}$, $\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\times }{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{10}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{m}$, $\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\times }{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{8}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{m}$, or $\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\times }{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{6}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{m}$?

Short answer

The approximate radius of a copper atom is$1\times {10}^{-8}\mathrm{m}$.

Step-by-step solution

Given data and concept

The given atom is the copper atom.

We need to find the radius for the copper atom and that too in the proximity of the given values.

Radius of a copper atom

The radius of a copper atom can be calculated as,

$\begin{array}{rcl}128\mathrm{pm}& =& 128\mathrm{pm}.\left(1\mathrm{pm}\times \frac{1\mathrm{m}}{{10}^{12}\mathrm{pm}}\right)\\ & =& 1.28\times {10}^{-10}\mathrm{m}\end{array}$

Determining the approximate radius of a copper atom

From equation (I), the approximate radius of a copper atom can be calculated as,

$1.28\times {10}^{-10}\mathrm{m}\approx 1\times {10}^{-10}\mathrm{m}$

Thus, the approximate radius is $1\times {10}^{-10}\mathrm{m}$.