Metallic Bonding — Drills · Grade 11 Science

Chapter: Bonding, Formulas & Molecular Structure

What these drills covers

By the end of Metallic Bonding you should be able to:

6 questions, multiple choice and written answer, each with a worked explanation.

Vocabulary used: metallic bond, delocalized electrons, electron sea, malleable, ductile, luster, alloy.

Problem 1

In a metal, the valence electrons are best described as…
  1. delocalized and free to move
  2. transferred permanently to nonmetals
  3. completely absent
  4. fixed to one atom each
Answer and explanation

delocalized and free to move

Metallic bonding features delocalized electrons that roam freely through the whole metal.

Problem 2

Which of these is NOT typically a property of metals?
  1. malleable
  2. brittle and shatters easily
  3. shiny (lustrous)
  4. good conductor of electricity
Answer and explanation

brittle and shatters easily

Metals bend rather than shatter; brittleness is typical of ionic solids, not metals.

Problem 3

Metals conduct heat and electricity well because…
  1. their ions are unusually large
  2. their delocalized electrons move freely and carry energy and charge
  3. they are held together by covalent bonds
  4. they are nonpolar molecules
Answer and explanation

their delocalized electrons move freely and carry energy and charge

The free-moving electron sea carries both electric charge (current) and thermal energy (heat).

Problem 4

What is an alloy? Give one example.
Answer and explanation

An alloy is a mixture of a metal with one or more other elements. Examples include steel (iron mixed with carbon) or brass (copper mixed with zinc).

Problem 5

A metal can be drawn out into a thin wire without breaking. This property is called…
  1. density
  2. luster
  3. ductility
  4. conductivity
Answer and explanation

ductility

Being able to be drawn into a wire is ductility.

Problem 6

Use the electron-sea model to explain why hitting a metal bends it while hitting an ionic crystal shatters it.
Answer and explanation

In a metal, when layers of positive ions are pushed, they slide to new positions but the mobile electron sea flows with them and keeps holding the ions together, so the metal bends. In an ionic crystal, shifting a layer lines up like charges (positive next to positive, negative next to negative); they repel strongly and the crystal splits apart.

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