Hee Sun drew an electron dot diagram of a silicon atom as shown.

Question

S i with 1 dot each above, right, below, left.

In addition to changing the symbol to C, how would this diagram compare with an electron dot diagram of a carbon atom (C)?

The dot to the left of the symbol would be removed in the diagram for carbon.
The same number of dots would appear in the diagram for carbon.
There would be two dots above and to the right of the symbol in the diagram for carbon.
The single dots would be replaced with two dots on each side of the symbol in the diagram for carbon.

Answer 1

To compare the electron dot diagram of a silicon atom (Si) with that of a carbon atom (C), we need to consider their valence electron configurations.

• Silicon (Si) has 4 valence electrons and is typically represented with one dot in each of the four available positions (top, right, bottom, left).
• Carbon (C) also has 4 valence electrons, but it can share these electrons in covalent bonds.

The provided description indicates that the electron dot diagram for silicon has one dot in each direction (top, right, bottom, left). If we change the symbol to C and create the carbon diagram, it would still have 4 dots, arranged similarly.

The correct comparison is: The same number of dots would appear in the diagram for carbon.

Therefore, while the arrangement is similar, the number of dots would remain the same in both diagrams (4) for carbon. The arrangement may differ slightly based on how bonding is typically depicted, but if we are just focusing on the dots alone, the total number would be the same.