The Secret Behind a Gecko’s Gravity-Defying Grip

What force allows geckos to walk on very smooth surfaces?

• Van Der Waals Force

• Hydrogen Bonding

• Dipole induced Dipole

• A sticky substance is released by the gecko.

Electrons can occasionally be more on one side of an atom.  True or False.

• True, due to the constant motion of the electrons they sometimes can be more on one side of the atom.

• False, the negative charges of the electrons repel each other enough to prevent that from happening.

A dipole is when...

• one side of the atom has a slight negative charge because the electrons are more dense on that side,  and the other side has a slight positive charge 

• the valence electrons of one atom are shared with another atom

• the valence electrons of one atom are transferred to another atom

The Van der Waals forces are ....

• weak

• strong

According to that graph (and what was just said), what increases faster?  (note: the blue dotted line is showing you a direct 1:1 increase)

• Mass

• Surface area