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Oxygen is a 'divalent' atom. To understand why Oxygen is divalent, we need to know how electrons 'stack-up' in an atom.

Oxygen has eight electrons to stack up. This means that it can have two in its first shell, and six in the next. It has two spaces in it's second shell.

Another rule for atoms is that they 'like' to have full shells.

This means that the Oxygen atom finds it easy to pick up two extra electrons. This means it has a tendency to grab two electrons and carry them around, making it 'divalent'.

Other atoms that can behave divalently are Sulphur and Selenium (Group 8 atoms, in the same family as Oxygen) and metals like Magnesium and Calcium, that like to lose two electrons and so have a positive charge, the mirror image of Oxygens's divalency.

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