Polarizability

[charlotte_jacobs_4I]

I am still a bit confused on how to find the polarizability of and ion and what exactly polarizability is. If anyone could help that would be great! Thank you!

[ariana_apopei1K]

Generally polarizability refers to the ease with which an e- cloud of a particle can be distorted.
Polarizing power though, is the ability something has to distort said e- cloud.
A smaller atom will have less polarizability, I think because the actual clouds are smaller and the e- are held more tightly by the nucleus. The trend is that it increases down a group, and decreases from left to right on the periodic table. The end of this worksheet helped me
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=37521

[Christopher Wendland 4F]

Polarizability is how easily the electron cloud can be distorted. Larger atoms have more electrons and the electrons are further away from the nucleus meaning they have less effective nuclear charge on them, this means that they are more polarizable.