The two valid reasons why Mateo's model accurately represents sodium chloride are:
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Mateo's model shows a repeating pattern of sodium and chlorine atoms.
- This accurately reflects the arrangement of ions in sodium chloride, which forms a cubic lattice structure where sodium (Na⁺) and chloride (Cl⁻) ions alternate.
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The model can be extended to show larger amounts of sodium chloride.
- Sodium chloride's structure is a crystalline lattice, meaning that it can be repeated indefinitely, which is characteristic of ionic compounds.
The other statements regarding the colors representing different atoms are inaccurate in the context of sodium chloride (NaCl), as NaCl consists of sodium and chlorine, not sodium and oxygen, and does not consist of four kinds of atoms.