Chapter 11, Problem 22PE

Use the data in the previous Practice Exercise to determine the density of polonium. Can we use the density of a metal to deduce its crystal structure? Explain your answer.

Polonium is the only metal known to crystallize in a simple cubic structure. If the X-ray experiment shows that the side of a polonium crystal is 335 pm, what is the atomic radius for polonium? (Hint: Do the polonium atoms “touch" along a side, diagonal of a side, or diagonal through the center of the crystal?)