Reading Guide
for the Chemical bonding unit

Chemistry Chapter 3: Togetherness

pp. 45–47. Here we are introduced to the chemical reactivity of metals and nonmetals. A key idea in these pages is:

• How do atoms combine?

pp. 48–51. This section describes the ionic bond and the structure of ionic solids.

• Why are atoms in an ionic solid attracted to each other?
• Why are ionic solids difficult to melt?
• Why are ionic solids often brittle?

pp. 52–53. Skim. This much shorter section explains why the physical properties of solid metals are so different form the physical properties of ionic solids.

pp. 54–57. Covalent bonds are the bonds we think about the most in chemistry! On page 56, the book offhandedly shows dot structures (Lewis diagrams) of molecules; we will go over this much more thoroughly in class.

pp. 58–59. These pages describe how to predict the shapes of molecules using the Valence Shell Electron pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model. (The book does not give the name, but that is what it is called.) We will go over this in more detail in class.

p. 60. Ignore this page. It is well beyond the scope of this course.

pp. 61–64. This section describes the polarity of covalent bonds. Skim it. Bond polarity has profound influence on a chemical s properties, but we do not have time to do the topic justice in this course.

Wrap-Up

Could you write a skit explaining the different types of bonding?

Printer-friendly PDF version of this reading guide