Are the ions at the edge of an ionic crystal complete spheres?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the representation of atomic and ionic shapes in solid chemistry, specifically questioning whether they are depicted as 1/8 of a sphere at the corners and 1/4 of a sphere along the edges. It emphasizes that these spherical representations are symbolic rather than literal, as there is no definitive shape for atoms or ions at the microscopic level. According to atomic orbital theory, the spherical regions indicate areas with a high probability of finding parts of a molecule, underscoring the probabilistic nature of molecular structure rather than fixed geometries.
lwymarie
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or are they 1/8 of a sphere at the corners and 1/4 of a sphere at the edge?
 
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In solid chemistry, 'spheres' are totally symbolic. A sphere is used to denote an ion/atom in that particular space. Microscopically, no definite or predicted shape for these entities exist. According to the Atomic orbital theory, the region of a molecule we denote is basically a region where the probability of finding a part of the molecule is quite high. We denote such a region by a sphere.
 

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