What are the different types of chemical bonds and how are they formed?
Atoms are the building blocks of all substances. But what is it that keeps atoms connected together? They are held together by CHEMICAL BONDS, strong attractive forces between atoms. Without these ties that bind, the universe would be nothing more than a mass chaos of individual atoms. So what constitutes a chemical bond? A bond is formed when electrons from two atoms interact with each other and their atoms become joined. The electrons that interact with each other are VALENCE ELECTRONS, the ones that reside in the outermost electron shell of an atom. As you sit reading this sentence, billions of atoms surround you. When any two of them approach each other, their outermost electrons come into close contact. Recall that electrons are negatively charged particles, so a chance meeting between atoms usually results in the two repelling each other. Occasionally, however, atoms will stick together by forming a chemical bond. There are two main types of bonding discussed here. A COVALENT BON
