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It is the electromagnetic force that holds atoms and molecules together. The protons are positively charged, and the electrons are negatively charged. A fundamental law of electrostatics is that opposite charges attract, as you know. And the protons huddled with the neutrons in the nucleus attract and hold the electrons around them. Further, the negatively charged electrons don't like each other, as you could have easily guessed, and they have to make up some special ways to get along in the electron cloud. This gives rise to the electrons arranging themselves in shells or energy levels. Extending that even further, we see that some atoms want to loan out or borrow electrons to set up conditions in the electron cloud where the electrons are "happy" with the arrangement. And this gives rise to chemical bonding, which is the loaning or borrowing of electrons in ionic bonding, or the sharing of electrons in covalent bonding. In the quantum mechanical universe of the atoms, it is electromagnetics that sets the conditions for structures, both of the atoms themselves, and the molecules they form.

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16y ago

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