Types of Radius with Respect to Types of Bonds

Determining the atomic radii is rather difficult because there is an uncertainty in the position of the outermost electron – we do not know exactly where the electron is. This phenomenon can be explained by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. To get a precise measurement of the radius, but still not an entirely correct measurement, we determine the radius based on the distance between the nuclei of two bonded atoms. The radii of atoms are therefore determined by the bonds they form. An atom will have different radii depending on the bond it forms; so there is no fixed radius of an atom.