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When are electrons shared?

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Anonymous

13y ago
Updated: 8/18/2019

This is more Chemistry than Physics. But I'll put it quite simply:

If you look at a Periodic Table from left to right, you see that there are 18 columns of elements (called groups). The farthest group on the right, made up of the elements Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and Radon. These elements are known as "noble gases" and they are extremely stable (meaning they are the least likely elements to react with other elements in the entire table).

What the noble gases all have in common is that they all have a total of 8 valence electrons (they are the electrons on the outside of the atom's last orbital). Now, look at all the other elements on the periodic table. They don't have 8 electrons (more or less, they possess 1-7 electrons in their last orbital).

These elements WANT 8 electrons so they can be stable like a noble gas too. This is why they will sometimes form bonds (these bonds are called covalent bonds [equal sharing of electrons] or polar covalent bonds [unequal sharing]) where they will share electrons between each other so each atom can have 8 electrons and be "happy".

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Wiki User

13y ago

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