Which statement best describes what must occur for two atoms to combine to form a chemical bond?

A. The repulsive forces of both nuclei must overcome their attractive forces for a chemical bond to form.
B. The attractive forces of both nuclei must overcome their repulsive forces for a chemical bond to form.
C. The electrons of one nucleus must transfer to the nucleus of the second atom for a chemical bond to form.
D. Two atoms will always form chemical bonds if they are placed in close proximity to each other.

Question

Which statement best describes what must occur for two atoms to combine to form a chemical bond?

 		A.	The repulsive forces of both nuclei must overcome their attractive forces for a chemical bond to form.
 		B.	The attractive forces of both nuclei must overcome their repulsive forces for a chemical bond to form.
 		C.	The electrons of one nucleus must transfer to the nucleus of the second atom for a chemical bond to form.
 		D.	Two atoms will always form chemical bonds if they are placed in close proximity to each other.

anonymous · Answer

@Kainui @Abhisar

kainui · Answer

What's your best guess so far?

anonymous · Answer

Well I thought it had to do with the electron clouds and valances but clearly I'm wrong considering that's not an option...

kainui · Answer

Well, what do you think of the answers when you read them? Which ones sound kind of good or not so good? It sounds like you already have an idea of how an atom is supposed to look so that's a great start you're on the road to understanding! =)

anonymous · Answer

well C makes no sense because electrons aren't in the nucleus

anonymous · Answer

and D just isn't true

kainui · Answer

Awesome alright good job. So now you've narrowed it down to just two choices all on your own. So what do you think of these last two options? This is where I'll be able to help depending on what you say because I can see what small part in your understanding is off and help you fix just that part.

anonymous · Answer

well nuclei have repulsive forces so A i guess?

kainui · Answer

Well it is sort of a poorly worded answer, which is why it's kind of confusing.

"The repulsive forces of both nuclei must overcome their attractive forces for a chemical bond to form."

So if the repulsive forces of the atoms are stronger than the attractive forces, then that would mean the atoms are pushed apart.

"The attractive forces of both nuclei must overcome their repulsive forces for a chemical bond to form."

Now since the nuclei are positively charged they'll be repelling but because they have an electron cloud of shared electrons between them it'll overcome the repulsion and they'll be attracted. So if you think of it like this: |dw:1408104892420:dw| So while the orbitals are overlapped they have a higher probability of an electron being between the two protons and so we call this a bond. It's pretty stable because if you try pushing them together the protons will push back and if you try pulling them apart they'll still be attracted to those shared electrons.