Asked by jacob

A student is working with four different solid substances: sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), and iodine (I). Which substance is most likely to break easily into many smaller pieces?

sodium
calcium
copper
iodine

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Iodine.

Iodine is a molecular solid held together by weak van der Waals forces, so its crystals are brittle and readily break or cleave into many small pieces. Metals like sodium, calcium and copper are ductile/malleable and tend to deform rather than shatter.