(b) What is the coordination number
of each cannonball in the in...

Question

(b) What is the coordination number of each cannonball in the interior of the stack?

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone consider the pack of golf balls in the image below, identify the coordination number of this packing. So let's first recall what a coordination number is defined by. And we're going to recall that a coordination number describes the number of atoms molecules or ions bonded to a central atom in a crystal so of a solid. So looking at our image given, we should recognize that we have these golf balls stacked in a cubic shape. So let's outline this cubic shape here. So connecting the dots, we're going to form the following cubic shape. And we want to recognize that this cubic shape describes a primitive cubic lattice. So because we have a primitive cubic lattice shape, where we want to recall that this corresponds to a coordination number, that is equal to six where this coordination number of six represents the faces of our cube shape here. So we have one face here in the front. Our second face here at the top are third face here at the bottom of our cube, our fourth face at the side of our cube. Our fifth face at the back of our cube and our sixth face here on the outer right hand face of the cube. So our final answer is going to be that our coordination number is equal to six. I hope everything I went through is clear. If you have any questions, please leave them down below and I'll see everyone in the next practice video

(b) What is the coordination number of each cannonball in the interior of the stack?

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