Chemical Bonds

      Welcome and get ready because we are about to talk about something new in this post. Last post, you learned about the Periodic Table and its function. This post, we will learn about the explosive facts about chemical bonds. Before we begin, let us review the atomic structure of an atom.

Figure 1: the atom


      For you people who do not know what the atomic structure of an atom is, or if you need a refresher course in atoms, here are the basic parts of an atom. The atom is made up of three basic particles; protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons are positively charged particles and neutrons have a neutral charge. These two particles can be found the atom's nucleus.


Figure two: the atom


      The electrons spin around the atom's nucleus in a random and spherical orbit, and this forms an electron cloud. The next most important thing you need to know about is shells. No, not like egg shells but electron shells. Electron shells are the fixed position that certain electrons travel on. Atoms can have one, two or even seven electron shells. In each electron shell, a certain amount of electrons can be held in them. The first shell can hold up to two electrons, the second and third one can hold up to eight, the fourth and fifth can hold up to nine electrons each, and the sixth and seventh can hold up to thirty-two each. You should also know what valance electrons are; valence electrons are the electrons that atoms share or take away from one another, and are located on the atoms outermost shell. With this information, let's learn about chemical bonds.

      Chemical bonds are the attraction of atoms when an atom shares, takes away or loses electrons. Atoms bond to become stable. A stable atom is one that has a full outer shell of electrons versus an unstable atom which does not have a full outer shell. The two most common bonds you will hear about are ionic and covalent bonds. A covalent bond is formed when two or more atoms share electrons to achieve a full outer shell. An example of this is H20. An ionic bond is formed when an atom takes away another atoms electron. When this happens, the atom that took away the electron becomes either positively or negatively charged and the other atom to lose the electron changes charge too, but due to electrostatic attraction opposites attract and the two atoms bond. An example of this is salt.

figure three: a covalent bonds

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The Periodic Table

      The periodic Table of Elements is an amazing chart that helps sad lost souls like you to learn about the elements all around you. The Periodic Table contains approximently 118 elements, but do to the Periodic Table's design, new elements can be added to the list. The table can be broken up into ten different catagorizes that I will get back to later, but first you need a history lesson.
  





 
Figure 1: the Periodic Table

      Before you learn how to read the Periodic Table, You must learn its history, so lets begin. The first people to organize things into different categorizes based on its attributes were the Greeks. They organized them into four major categories; earth, air, water, and fire. Later on, scientists decided that this system of organization did not work, so scientists decided to try and organize all the matter in the universe on a chart. Many people tried and had many different designs for this element chart. One chart had the elements in zigzag rows, Another one looked like a circle, and one looked like a triangle. Sadly, none of these ideas worked.


Figure two: Dr. Timmothy Stowe's chart



      Luckily their was one man how came to help the world with this element organization ordeal. His man was Dmitri Mendeleev, the youngest of seven kids in his family and the man named for the 101 element mendelevium. This Russian scientist is the creator of the modern Periodic Table over 140 years ago. His chart is still used, because his chart was created in such a way that new elements can be easily added to the list.


Figure three: Dmitri Mendeleev




      Now that you know how the Periodic Table's history, lets talk about how to read it. The table is a chart made up of small squares. These squares represent an element. The number at the top of the square is the atomic number. This number tells how many protons that an element has. The second number is the atomic symbol. The number on the bottom is the atomic mass.

Figure four: A boron square

      The squares on the table are then  organized into different parts of the table. The first thing is the elements are organized by weight, this means that lighter atoms are put a the top of the list and the heavier atoms are put at the bottom. Then, based on the atoms material composition it is then organized even farther. If the element is a metal, it can be found on the left hand side of the table. If the element is a nonmetal, it can be found on the right hand side of the table. The arrangement of the electrons in the atom's outer shell also helps organize the elements too. I incourage  you to learn about periods and groups because its time for me to sign off.

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The mixtures and compounds around you.

The world around us is made up of many particles. Sometimes, these particles come together and make mixtures and compounds. Mixtures are two or more substances that combine physically; an example of this is a fruit salad. On the other hand, a compound is two or more substances that combine chemically but not physically. A perfect example for a compound is water.

Figure 1: Fruit salad

  

  There are many different types of mixtures but, they are all made up of two or more substances that are physically combined and the substances still retain their original chemical properties. The  two different types of mixtures that you will hear a lot about are homogenous and heterogeneous mixtures. A homogenous mixture is where the substances are evenly spread throughout the mixture; an example of this is salt water. In heterogeneous mixtures, the substances are not spread evenly throughout the mixture; an example of this is sand in a bottle of water that has been shaken up.

Figure 2: Jar of sand water

Figure 3: Glass of salt water

                     
 Compounds are created when two or more elements chemically combine to form a different substance.  The substances in the compound do not retain the same original properties that they started out with and can be very hard to break apart. An example of this is table salt. The to substances that create table salt are green chlorine gas and sodium. Both are deadly to life by themselves, but combined make table salt with is important to the survival of most life. 

Figure 4: Table salt



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What is an atom?

  Atoms are the smallest part of an element that can still retain its chemical properties. The Atom is made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons are positively charged, neutrons are a neutral charge, and of course electrons are negatively charged. The neutrons and protons can be found in the nucleus being held together by the strong force. The strong force keeps the protons from repelling each other.  Outside of the nucleus, spinning at almost the speed of light, is the negatively charged electrons. 

                                                        Figure 1: Diagram of an atom









  When two or more different types of atoms bond together, they form a molecule. A great example of a molecule is water. Water, also known as H2O, is formed by two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms coming together. It is believed that the first molecules formed about 300,000 years after the Big Bang, or just under 15 billion years ago. 

Figure 2: A water molecule

  About 2,400 years ago, a Greek philosopher named Democritus came up with the brilliant idea that the world was made up of tiny particles that could not be cut in half. He called these particles atoms from the Greek word atomos, meaning indivisible. Later on in the 1800s a man named John Dalton refined the idea of the atomic theory. He claimed that an atom is the smallest part of an element that can still retain its chemical properties. A simpler way to think about it is that if you were to break an element like iron to its atomic size, it would still be iron, but if you try and break the iron atom any smaller, it would not be iron anymore. Though many of his colleagues were not fond of his theory, it eventually became accepted through many more experiments conducted by various people.

 

Figure 3: Democritus



Figure 4: John Dalton







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Additional Links

www.johndalton.org

education.jlab.org/atomtour

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Bill+Nye+Atoms+And+Molecules&form=HDRSC3&first=1#view=detail&mid=A43F6273E7F9E678CDBEA43F6273E7F9E678CDBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cnXV7Ph3WPk