Page 38 - Miracles Within the Molecule

HArun yahya

Atoms Share Theır Electrons and Establısh
Covalent Bonds
Atoms may some times lack enough elec trons to donate to one
anoth er. Or instead of giv ing each other elec trons, atoms may pre fer
anoth er form of bond ing. At such times they share the req ui site elec -
trons between them, lit er al ly like two islands joined togeth er by a
bridge. In this anal o gy, elec trons con sti tute this con nect ive bridge,
which is known as a cova lent bond between atoms. Many impor tant mol -
e cu les on Earth are the result of such bonds.
To help you under stand these atom ic bonds more clear ly, take the
exam ple of the hydro gen atom, which pos sess es only a sin gle elec tron.
This exceed ing ly sim ple atom tries to dou ble its sin gle elec tron in order
to achieve great er sta bil i ty. As you have already seen, there needs to be
a spe cif ic num ber of elec trons—eight—to be cir cling in an atom's out er -
most orbit. The only excep tion to this rule is in an atom's first orbit,
where the ideal num ber of elec trons is two. Therefore, it is suf fi cient for
a hydro gen atom, with its sin gle elec tron in a sin gle orbit, to obtain only
one more elec tron to attain sta bil i ty. To do so, hydro gen estab lish es
bonds with var i ous atoms. The hydro gen gas present in the atmos phere
is noth ing else than two hydro gen atoms joined by a cova lent bond.
Similarly, an oxy gen atom has six elec trons in its outer orbit. In
order to become sta ble, it needs to raise that num ber to eight. It there -
fore seeks two hydro gen atoms—each of which pos sess es a sin gle elec -
tron—with which it can estab lish a cova lent bond. .
These cal cu la tions for oxy gen and hydro gen are not ran dom ly
deter mined. It's no coin ci dence that oxy gen has six elec trons and two
hydro gen atoms can make up this def i cit. By means of the atoms' mutu -
al har mo ny, water—the most essen tial sub stance for life—is cre at ed.
Allah deter mines these pro por tions and cre ates sta ble, har mo ni ous
atoms and water. This is open ly revealed in the fol low ing verse:
We send forth the pol li nat ing winds and send down water from the
sky and give it to you to drink. And it is not you who keep its stores.
(Surat al-Hijr: 22)

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