Periodic Trends and Coulomb's Law

Flashcards covering key concepts related to periodic trends, ionic and atomic properties, and Coulomb's Law.

Electron Affinity (EA)

The energy change when an electron is added to a gaseous atom, usually exothermic.

Electronegativity

A measure of the attraction of an atom for electrons in a chemical bond.

Effective Nuclear Charge ($Z_{ ext{eff}}$)

The net positive charge experienced by a particular electron in a multi-electron atom.

Shielding

The phenomenon where inner (core) electrons reduce the attraction between the nucleus and outer (valence) electrons.

Ionic Radius

Refers to the size of an ion, where cations are smaller and anions are larger than their parent atoms.

Isoelectronic Series

A series of ions that have the same number of electrons; radius decreases with increasing nuclear charge.

Ionization Energy (IE)

The energy required to remove one electron from a gaseous atom or ion, an endothermic process.

Coulomb's Law

Describes the electrostatic force between two charged particles, proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Coulomb's Constant (k)

A constant used in Coulomb's Law, approximately $8.9875 \times 10^9 \text{N} \cdot \text{m}^2/\text{C}^2$, representing the electrostatic force constant.

Inverse Square Law

A principle stating that the force decreases rapidly as the distance between the charges increases, halving the distance results in a force four times greater.