So Im just gonna kick off discussion with a simple explanation for chemistry nerds.
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Just some terms if you don't know these already:
Covalent Compounds - When two nonmetals 'share' electrons to become stable.
Valence Electrons - The Outermost Electrons
H2O - The formula for water
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So basically an elements goal is to become stable like the noble gases. (Neon, Argon, Helium, Krypton etc.)
And to do this they have to merge with other elements. I'm talking about Covalent compounds right now. So this is when two non metals share electrons what do I mean by this?
So basicallicaly to share electrons the molecules of two elements have to merge. The collum which an element is in determines how many valence electrons are in an element. Oxygen is in the sixth column, so it has six valence electrons. It needs eight to become stable, so it needs to merge with two hydrogen molecules. Doing this creates water.
There is a thing called the Lois Structure which helps to visualize
this. So Oxygen with six valence electrons looks a bit like this:
:O:
..
But the two lower dots are higher. And Hydrogen would be liek this: H.
..
so H2O = :O: + H. + H.
and the lewis structure for it is:
.............H
..............|
H2O = :O:
..............|
.............H
(ignore those strings of dots. It's weird without those to hold its place)
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So yah! That's basically what a covalent compound is, I hope I explained it well.
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Google the lewis structure of H2O I didn't type it out very well XD