Hello from Chem Help ASAP.
When you talk with chemists about chemical
reactions, people always emphasize the valence
electrons.
So let's discuss why these valence electrons
are particularly important in our atoms.
OK!
Before we talk about atoms, we're going to
talk about a company.
I'm going to draw a dot on the screen.
This is the headquarters of our company, and
let's say it's some kind of retail company.
The company consists of more than the headquarters.
There are different parts of the company,
and these might include things like a regional
office...
You might have different warehouses.
Ultimately, you're also going to have stores.
What happens at the stores?
When customers want to interact with your
company (let's fix that)...
When your customers interact with your company,
they bring money.
They interact at the stores.
They don't go to the warehouse.
They don't go to the regional office.
They go to the stores.
They bring their money in their various forms.
In return for their money, they receive their
goods and services.
This is not so different from an atom.
I'm going to draw a dot, just like our headquarters.
This is not a headquarters.
This is a nucleus of an atom.
Inside the nucleus we have things like the
protons and the neutrons.
Radiating out from our nucleus are different
features of the atom.
These features are called "shells".
What are these shells?
They are not a regional office or a warehouse.
These shells are where we keep our electrons.
There are two types of shells for us.
There are the non-valence shells.
Then there's the valence shell.
The valence shell is the outermost shell that
contains electrons.
When our atom (on the left)...
When it comes in contact with other atoms
and if a chemical reactions occurs, there
is an exchange of electrons that can happen.
That exchange occurs exclusively at the valence
shell.
The non-valence shell electrons are not involved.
This is why there is such an emphasis on the
valence electrons because these are the electrons
that get exchanged during chemical reactions.
