A molecule of ethanol has two carbon atoms, six hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom. A ball-and-stick model of a molecule of ethanol is made from the following components:

Question

one red ball
two black balls
six white balls
eight sticks

What do the black balls in the model represent?

A. oxygen atoms

B. bonds between atoms

C. hydrogen atoms

D. carbon atoms

Answer 1

The black balls in the model represent D. carbon atoms.

In a ball-and-stick model of ethanol (C2H5OH), the atoms are depicted with different colored balls, where typically red is used for oxygen, black for carbon, and white for hydrogen. Therefore, since the question specifies that there are two black balls, they represent the two carbon atoms in the ethanol molecule.