Bonds

[Ainsley DeMuth 1H]

When writing out Lewis Structures, I am getting confused as to how many electrons are represented in the bond lines. It seems as though sometimes the bond lines are counted as two electrons, while others times just one electron? Do you count the bond line as two when you are counting the total number of electrons (ie trying to form an octet)? And then do you count the bond line as a single electron when trying to find the formal charge/valence electrons? Or do bond lines always represent two electrons?

[Caroline 2A]

hi!

I'm pretty sure a chemical bond line represents two electrons because one electron from one atom is bound to one electron from the other atom.

Correct me if I am wrong, but this is always how I interpret the lines.

hope this helps :)

[joshua_quinn_1C]

Hello! The bond lines represent the sharing of electrons and always count as two electrons when counting the total amount of valence electrons within the Lewis Structure. Since these are shared electrons, they are also counted as two electrons when referring to the octet rule/guideline. However, when trying to figure out the formal charge of a specific element in the Lewis Structure, the bond line would be used as 1 electron instead of 2. Hope this helps!

[Jessica Phung 1E]

Hi,
The bond between atoms represent 2 electrons. Between two atoms, it means that they are bonded covalently so they're sharing the two atoms however each atom contributes one valence electron and they fill each others needs. So yes, you count that one bond as two electrons when you're trying to fulfill the octet guideline. When considering the formal charge, you count the one bond as two electrons and then divide the total number of "shared electrons" by 2. Hope this helps.

[Reagan Feldman 1D]

I believe that bond lines always represent 2 electrons. Hence, a double bond would represent 4 electrons. When trying to find the formal charge of an atom, the bond lines would still represent 2 electrons, which are shared electrons in the equation.

[Colby Irvine 2A]

Sometimes the valence electrons of an atom are counted as 1 e- that is represented in a bond. But the bond itself represents 2 e- paired. If you had C-O, then carbon has 4 Valence electrons, but it has 2 pairs of e- shared in the bond.

[Michael Vigman 2D]

Bond lines will always represent two electrons. One way to think about it is that the electrons are being shared between two atoms in a molecule.

In interpreting bond lines for the formal charge formula:

Formal charge = # of valence electrons - (# of lone pair electrons + (# of shared electrons / 2)).

The reason we divide the # of shared electrons by 2 is that there are two electrons per bond. Thus, if you wanted, you could edit the above formula to read Formal charge = # of valence electrons - (# of lone pair electrons + # of bonds).

If you want to illustrate this sharing better, consider putting the dots for each of the electrons on each atom and then draw a circle around two electrons at a time to demonstrate their sharing.

[Omar Alkhalili 1J]

Hello! The bond lines between two atoms would count as two electrons because they are being shared. They each contribute an electron from their valence shell, so the formal charge counts as 1, however.

[Trisha Nagin]

Each bond line represents 2 electrons. A single bond represents two electrons, a double represents 4,...

[Denise Chavez 2G]

I have always interpreted the bond lines as representing two electrons, so one single line is two electrons and a two lines is four electrons. A bond line always represents two electrons since one electron is shared from one atom and another electron is shared from the other atom.

[daniellediem1k]

one line = 2 electrons

[Maddie Klee 3K]

Bond lines represent two electrons, where one electron is being shared by each element. When counting the total number of electrons, you would count the bond line as two electrons, but when calculating formal charge, it's just one electron per element.

[hanniaghernandez]

The bonds represent two electrons and when there is two lines it would be 4 electrons. This means that each line represent 2 electrons.

[Denise Chavez 2G]

Each bond line represents two electrons because each atom contributes one electron from their valence shell.

[Madelyn_Rios_2c]

A bond line represents 2 electrons since they are being shared. A double bond is 4 electrons, and a triple bond is 6 electrons.

[Akshat Katoch 2K]

A bond in the lewis structure represents 2 electrons. One electron comes from the central atom and the other comes from the atom attached to the central atom. Double bonds represent 4 electrons and triple bonds represent 6 electrons.

[Trisha Nagin]

2 electrons are represented in each bond line

[Shannon Lau 14B - 1H]

In each bond line in the lewis structure, there are 2 electrons - more specifically, there is one from each of the atoms.

For instance in H-H the bond line reveals a total of 2 electrons, keeping in mind that one comes from the first hydrogen and another from the second.

[Amine Adlouni 1L]

When counting total amount of electrons, each bond represents two electrons. When looking at the formal charge of each atom within a molecule, each bond represents one electron.

[SheaZenker_3F]

Each bond is two electrons, because it is a covalent bond where the atoms are shared. But when doing formal charges we would calculate the bonds as one valence electron

[Zoe Apple 1F]

Each bond line represents an electron pair, so the answer would be two. In the case of formal charge, count it as one.

[Vikram Sharma]

The bond lines are always considered two electrons. I think when you are talking about a line representing one electron is when we find formal charge of an atom in a molecule. We count the lines as one electron because these electrons are being shared, and for finding formal charge we consider the atom to have half of the electrons it is sharing. That is the only case we consider a line one electron, but when you look at a line in a lewis structure remember that represents two electrons beings shared.

[Edriana J Altea 2G]

Hi! Bond lines will always have two electrons. The way I think of it is that there are always two ends to the line, so naturally, there are two electrons. However for lone pairs that is different, because lone pairs are two as well but sometimes there might be only one which then represents one electron.

[Gianna Greco 1G]

Each bond line represents two electrons being shared between 2 atoms. This holds true for double and triple bonds as well. In a double bond, there are 4 electrons being shared, and in a triple bond, 3.

[Parinita Jithendra 2A]

each line represents two electrons. I think that when you heard 1, they were referring to the pairs of electrons as it shared between two different atoms.

[Grant_2A]

1 bond will almost always equal 2 electrons, there can be some special cases when counting valence electrons but we don't do that very often, so as a rule of thumb remember that one bond is 2 electrons.

[Darlene Luu 1H]

A bond line between two atoms has 2 electrons. Each atom is sharing one of it's electron. Also, you could count the bond line as one to determine the octet.

[905701360]

1 line is equivalent to 2 electrons, so a single bond is 2 electrons, double bond is 4 electrons, and triple bond is 6 electrons.

[Vashe Sundar 3H]

Hi! One line always represents 2 bonded electrons. You might be confusing the line as an indication of the formal charge or partial charge of the compound on certain diagrams :)

[Brenda Tran 3C]

A bond line consists of two electrons! For example, carbon could have four bond line which represents a full octet (8 valence electrons).