In a periodic table, why does the atom increase in size as you go down?

Question

For example, a Potassium atom is bigger than a Sodium atom.

Answer 1

Gosh, some of them above are spamming... *rolls eyes*



Here, let me help.



going down the group, nuclear charge increases as proton number increases. Also, the number of orbitals increase. so, Potassium has more orbitals AND more electrons than Na does.



However, despite the fact that K has higher nuclear charge, the fact that it has more INNER electrons (in inner orbitals that is) renders its outermost electron to be held less tightly by the nucleus. This is called the "inner shielding effect". The logic is that, the 2 electrons nearest to the nucleus is held most tightly and those in further from the nucleus are held less tightly. get it? So the further away the outermost (valence) electron is from the nucleus, the less tightly it is held. and yeah, like the answer above said..repulsions between electrons increase the diameter.



Hence, atomic size increases.

Answer 2

because as u go down the table, u add an extra electron orbit onto the element (although number of electrons in outermost electron orbital remains the same). Hence, diameter of each atom will increase, overall size increase.

Answer 3

Maybe so. But I know for sure that the "complexity" of the Atom does.



If the periodic table was composed of fibres and molecules instead of atoms.



Amino Protein would be the last one!

Answer 4

as you go down the group electrons are added to the new shells and hence the atomic radius increases and effective nuclear charge decreases the element becomes more electropositive

Answer 5

whenever you go down on someone the size icreases. ( hahahahaha) actually the answer is too boring so i thought id give you a bit of a funny. hope it made you laugh.

Answer 6

more protons, more electrons, more orbitals, different levels of repulsion