Homework #1

[206190205]

Formaldehyde, CH2O, is used as an embalming agent. Draw the structure of CH2O, including the lone pairs.
When it comes to drawing the bonds between the atoms, why is it that hydrogen has only 1 valence electrons, but one bond pair represents 2 valence electrons?

[alexia11]

Hydrogen has one valence electron that it is able to share to form a covalent bond. When hydrogen shares this bond with an unpaired electron from another atom it is able to form a bond, since bonds can be formed by the sharing of electron. By only having one valence electron to share, hydrogen is only able to form one bond in total.

[angel oganesyan]

i'm a little confused by your question but this is my best answer: a single bond between two atoms involves two electrons, one from each atom. when a hydrogen is bonding, it uses its one valence electron to bond with another molecules electron, so it contributes its only electron to the bond. because both molecules contribute one electron in a single bond, one single bond contains two electrons, one from each molecule, with one being from the hydrogen (which is can do because even though it has one e-, it is still half of the single bond)
hope this helps :)