Polarizability vs Polarizing Power

[Sydney Kim 3L]

What is the difference between polarizing power and polarizability?

[Joanne Phan 2H]

Polarizing power is a cation's ability to polarize another molecule while polarizability is the ease that an atom's electron cloud to be distorted. Hope that helps!

[Alexis Brown 2I]

I believe that polarizing power is the ability for an atom to polarize another atom, while polarizability is the ability to polarize itself

[Arya_Naeim_1H]

Polarzability is a measure of how much an electron cloud can be distorted and is used to describe anions. Larger anions with high charges have a higher polarizability which creates alrger dispersion forces. Polarizing power descirbes the ability of cations to polarize anions. Small highly charged cations have a strong polarizing power that when mixed with an anion can create strong dispersion forces.