Question

Calcium is a nontoxic metal that is used in supplements to maintain strong bones. Under high pressure conditions, over about 320,000 atm, it has a simple cubic unit cell. How many atoms of Ca are present in each unit cell?

Answer 1

Explanation:

It is known that in a simple cubic unit cell the atoms are only present at the corner of the unit cell. This means that there are in total 8 atoms present in a simple cubic unit cell.

Therefore, in one simple cubic unit cell sharing of one atom is only $\frac{1}{8}$.

Hence, the total number of atoms in a unit cell will be as follows.

            $8 \times \frac{1}{8}$ = 1

Thus, we can conclude that there is 1 calcium atom present in each unit cell.