Week 24 Reflection

This week in chemistry class, Mr. Abud had us further our research on charges of atoms. In the beginning of the week he mentioned something about covalent bonds? I don’t remember much about them except that they are between elements and share the same electrons. Also that a covalent bond has a lattice structure, which means all the atoms are sharing electrons with another element. We also learned about ionic compounds, which are also held together by a lattice structure and is made up of a non-metal and a metal. What we going over in class was, we were trying top figure the charges in each compound. The idea was that there are a certain amount of atoms to each element to create a compound. Take water for example, or H2O: Hydrogen has a charge of plus one (1+) and oxygen has a charge minus one (1-) and the point is to balance them and get the charges equal to zero and to make a compound. But since oxygen has a plus 2 charge, for they’re to be a balance between charges, there must be two hydrogen atoms to stabilize the equation and make an ionic compound! The next day we got more into ions. See ions are atoms that have an unequal amount of a positive or negative charge. Mr. Abud says we talked about them at least a little in biology, but I don’t remember them at all… Of course with them the help of Mr. Abud everything is much clearer and I fully understand the process. It really does surprise me that chemists have discovered and created so many elements through this process of know charges. I am curious if the amount of charges has anything to do with the creation of an element? Would the molecular and empirical formulas have any factor in this? I’ll have to remember to ask Mr. Abud about it the next time were on the topic or when he isn’t to busy. Although, if the empirical formula does have something to do with the creation of elements… Then there wouldn’t be as many elements as there are now. Wouldn’t there? Another good question ill have to ask. There is one question I asked Mr. Abud, I asked him what was the purpose of alchemist? “Didn’t they try and change substances into something different or distort its original form?” He replied by saying just one sentence, “Alchemist only tried turning everything into gold.” And I could see why they’d want to, if they pulled that off America wouldn’t owe any money to China for the war. Making elements and compound just by trial and error has made the world we live ion today. It’s truly amazing why chemists do. So be good. Until next time!