The atom at the center and the eight partial atoms at the corners gives a total of two atoms in the unit cell of a body-centered cubic metal.
Click the link on the right to toggle between the contents of a unit cell and the lattice.
An atom located on the lattice point in the center of this unit cell is completely within the cell. An atom on a lattice point at a corner of the cell is shared by a total of eight unit cells. Thus there would be one-eighth of an atom at each corner in this cell.
One
atom is completely inside the unit cell.
One-eighth
of an atom is located inside the unit cell at each corner
1 atom inside the cell + 8 corners * (1/8) atom at each corner = 2 atoms per cell
Copyright ©
2003
by: Journal of Chemical Education Software
by: Journal of Chemical Education Software