High School

Which statement best explains why calcium has a larger atomic radius than magnesium?

A. Calcium has a stronger nuclear charge than magnesium.
B. Calcium has electrons in more energy levels than magnesium.
C. Calcium has more neutrons than magnesium.
D. Calcium’s third energy level contains more electrons than magnesium.

Answer :

The statement that best explains why calcium has a larger atomic radius than magnesium is Calcium's third energy level contains more electrons than magnesium. Option D

Which statement best explains why calcium has a larger atomic radius than magnesium?

Atomic radius means how far away the outermost electron shell of an atom is from its nucleus. In the periodic table, the size of an atom usually gets bigger when you go down a group and gets smaller when you go across a row.

In this situation, calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) are in the same group (Group 2) on the periodic table. This group is also called the alkaline earth metals. As you go down this group, the size of the atoms gets bigger. This trend happens because each next element has one more energy level than the element above it.

Calcium has one more energy level than magnesium because it is below magnesium in the same group. The extra energy level in calcium makes its outermost electrons further away from the nucleus compared to the electrons in magnesium. This means that calcium is bigger than magnesium.

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Answer:

B. calcium has electrons in more energy levels than magnesium

Explanation:

atoms are made of three types of subatomic particles - electrons, protons and neutrons.

Neutrons and protons reside in the nucleus of the atom and electrons reside in energy shells

electronic configuration for both Ca and Mg are as follows

Mg - 2,8,2

Ca - 2,8,8,2

outermost energy shell of Mg with electrons is the third energy level

whereas outermost energy shell of Ca with electrons is the fourth energy shell

therefore Ca has a larger atomic radius than Mg as it has one more energy shell than Mg in which electrons reside