The Wonder Element
“No element is more
essential to life than carbon,”
says the book Nature’s
Building Blocks. The unique
characteristics of carbon
enable it to bond with itself
and many other chemical
elements, thus forming
millions of compounds, more
of which are constantly being
discovered or synthesized.
As the examples here show,
carbon atoms can also
combine to form various
shapes, including chains,
pyramids, rings, sheets, and
tubes. Carbon truly is a
wonder element!
DIAMOND
Carbon atoms form
pyramids, called
tetrahedrons, making the
structure extremely rigid and
making diamond the hardest
naturally occurring
substance known. A perfect
diamond is essentially a
single molecule of carbon
atoms.
GRAPHITE
Tightly bonded carbon
atoms are set out in loosely
bonded layer ... Read more »