Mario M. answered • 04/29/18
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Math and Chemistry Tutoring from a Chemical Engineering Graduate
The electronegativities generally increase as you go up and to the right in the periodic table.
My chemistry textbook lists the electronegativity values (not all periodic tables give exactly the same value, so keep this in mind, but the general trend usually (but not in every case) should be the same).
Listing them in the order you gave:
K=0.8
F=4.0
Co=1.9
P=2.1
So, the answer in order of decreasing electronegativity is:
F > P > Co > K (by the way, P and Co are close to each other, so depending on your criteria for the difference in values is large enough (>=0.2), you could consider these two as overlapping)
J.R. S.
tutor
EN values do not decrease as you go up and to the right in the periodic table. They INCREASE as you go up and to the right.
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04/29/18
Mario M.
tutor
I'm sorry, the first statement was wrong. I meant to say electronegativity increases as you go up and to the right. I provided the reasoning below with approximate values and the correct answer. I edited my first statement so now it is correct, thank you. This should be obvious based on the electronegativity values.
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04/29/18
Mario M.
tutor
I meant to say that the electronegativities generally increase as you up and to the right in the periodic table. I listed the approximate Electronegativity values from my chemistry textbook. I gave the correct answer, which means that it is obvious to see that the explanation is associated with the electronegativities increasing as you go up and the to the right in the periodic table. So, I changed the one word I meant to say. Thank you JRS.
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04/29/18
J.R. S.
04/29/18