How are valence electrons involved in the formation of a covalent bond?
They gave me the answer as...They are shared with another atom (or atoms).
However, i thought they shared electrons not atoms...it confused me
Atoms do share electrons, but the answer means that the valence electrons are shared with another atom or atoms.
It was I that gave you the last response. Please go back and look at what I wrote. You are confusing yourself. Your question was, "How are valence electrons involved in the formation of a covalent bond?" My response was that they (the electrons) were shared with another atom. One atom shares its electrons with another atom. For example, H has a single electron. One atom of H has one electron, another atom of H has a different electron, these two electrons are shared between the two H nuclei to form a H2 molecule. Electrons don't share electrons. Atoms share electrons. I hope this helps.
i get it...thanks
Let's see if this will help you visualize what Bob said:
* = 1 valence electron
H = Hydrogen
There are 2 hydrogens atoms:
H* and H*
And they (the atoms) form a covalent bond by sharing the electrons:
H**H --> now each hydrogen is much happier with 2 valence electrons instead of 1 valence electrons after forming the covalent bond.
In textbook, it is usually written like this H-H with the dash representing a bond (2 SHARED electrons).
I hope this helps, I wish jiskha have the drawing feature, visualization should help you understand things better.
I, too, wish the same thing. I have helped out on two or three boards. As far as I know, none of them have anything to "write" on so we can't make diagrams nor anything like that. For four years I tried to get AOL to put in subscripts, superscripts, and a white board but it never happened. What DID happen is that AOL stopped their service.
Here is another way of showing the H2 molecule.
H:H where the two dots represent the two electrons, one from each atom of H.
so...the atoms shared electrons at the same time which means it is the definition of covalent bond...right?
The shared set of electrons is the covalent bond.
I need help finding out How does genetics benefit medicine?
You are correct, valence electrons in the formation of a covalent bond are shared with another atom, not atoms themselves. I apologize for the confusion. Let me provide a more detailed explanation:
In a covalent bond, two atoms share a pair of electrons, typically from their outermost energy level, called the valence shell. Valence electrons are the outermost electrons that participate in chemical bonding. They determine the chemical properties of an atom.
When two atoms come close together, their valence electrons interact with each other. Each atom wants to achieve a stable electron configuration, typically the electron configuration of a noble gas. Noble gases have a full outermost energy level, which makes them stable and unreactive.
To achieve this stability, atoms can share their valence electrons with another atom, forming a covalent bond. In a covalent bond, the shared electrons belong to both atoms involved in the bond. Each atom contributes one electron to the bond, creating a shared electron pair.
By sharing valence electrons, both atoms in the covalent bond can satisfy the octet rule, which states that atoms tend to gain, lose, or share electrons to achieve a stable configuration with eight electrons in their outermost energy level.
So, in summary, valence electrons are shared by atoms to form a covalent bond, allowing both atoms to achieve a stable electron configuration.