alleryStart learning →What does electronegativity measure?
AAn atom's total number of electrons
BThe energy needed to remove electrons
CThe mass of an atom's valence shell
DAn atom's pull on bonding electrons
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. An atom's pull on bonding electrons
1. Electronegativity describes how strongly an atom draws electron density towards itself within a bond.
2. The stronger that pull, the larger the electronegativity value assigned to the atom.
3. It therefore decides how the shared electrons are distributed between the two bonded atoms.
4. The energy needed to remove an electron is ionisation energy, a different and separately measured quantity.
_Source: OpenStax Chemistry (CC BY 4.0), Ch 7 "Chemical Bonding and Molecular Geometry", section Electronegativity_
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