“cations are smaller in size than the corresponding atom.” pls explain this.

Hello student
Cations are formed by removal of electrons from a neutral atom. In a neutral atom, number of protons present in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons present in the orbitals.
The nucleus attracts the electrons toward itself, electrons produce an counter force by revolving around the nucleus.
When an electron is removed, the number of electrons becomes lesser than the number of protons. The nucleus now attracts the remaining electrons more strongly because of which the size gets reduced.