What’s the Difference

[Gabriel Ordonez 2K]

What is the difference between polarizability and polarizing?

[Tracy Tolentino_2E]

Polarizability is the tendency by the anion to be polarized by the cation and polarizing refers to the power of the cations to distort the electrons of the anion.

[Princess Jereza 3C]

Polarizability is the inclination of electrons to be distorted in an anion. Polarizing power is the ability of a cation to distort electrons of an anion. The size of cations are pretty small in comparison to the size of anions, since the radii of cations are small, their nucleus has enough pulling energy to pull onto (or distort) the electrons of an anion, and an anion's size is bigger and their electrons are farther from the nucleus and the nucleus cannot hold onto the electrons that are further away from it. I think of it as, polarizability = anions, polarizing power = cations.

[Montana James 4G]

anions are polarizable and the bigger they are, the more polarizable they are. cations have polarizing power that depends on how strongly they can pull the anion's electrons.

[Joelle 3L]

The tendency of an anion to become polarized by the cation is polarizability while the ability of a cation to distort an anion is polarization power. When looking at more polarizability you would look at a higher electron to proton ration and when looking at polarization power you would look at higher proton to electron ratio.

[Brynne Burrows 3K]

Polarizability is the tendency of an anion to be polarized, while polarizing power refers to how much cations can distort the electrons of the anion.

[MeeraBhagat]

Polarizability is the ability to be distorted by a cation, and polarizing is the act of distorting an anion electron cloud.