Concept:Electronegativity is the tendency of an atom to attract a shared pair of electrons. It increases across a period and decreases down a group.
Formula:$$ \text{EN Trend: F} > \text{Cl} > \text{Br} > \text{I} $$
Solution:- Fluorine is at the very top right of the periodic table (excluding noble gases).
- It has the smallest atomic radius among the halogens and minimal shielding.
- Because its valence electrons are closest to the highly attractive positive nucleus, Fluorine has the highest electronegativity value of all elements (4.0 on the Pauling scale).
Why other options are incorrect:- Option A, Option B, Option C: As you move down Group 7, the atomic radius and shielding effect increase, weakening the nucleus's grip on shared electrons and lowering electronegativity.
Quality & Fidelity Assurance:
Every question on BeambePrep is rigorously curated against the official PMDC syllabus with zero filler, zero out-of-syllabus content, and zero typos. When an authentic past paper originally contained a historical mistake or ambiguity from the examining board (such as UHS or NUMS), BeambePrep faithfully reflects the original paper while detailing the nuance and scientific consensus in the autopsy above.