Question

Explain why the balls representing fluorine (teal) and hydrogen (white) have only one peg, while carbon (black) has four.

Answer 1

Answer:

Hydrogen and fluorine form only one bond while carbon forms four bonds to other atoms.

Explanation:

This question brings us to the idea of valency. Fluorine is univalent while carbon is tetravalent.

Univalent means that fluorine can only form one bond to hydrogen while carbon forms as much as four bonds because it is tetravalent.

Hence fluorine and hydrogen have only one peg while carbon has four.