Answer to Question #93630 in General Chemistry for Leslie

Question

How do you draw two five carbon rings that share an atom

Answer 1

Draw your electron rings. The circle with the "C" is a representative nucleus, so now you'll need to indicate the electron orbitals. The number of rings you need is to tied to the number of electrons you have. Carbon has 6 electrons. Since each ring has a maximum number of electrons that can be pictured, you'll have to do some math. The first ring can have a maximum of 2 electrons, the second ring a maximum of 8, the third ring a maximum of 18, etc. Carbon has 6 electrons, so you'll need to draw two concentric rings.

Draw your electrons. You can do this a couple different ways. Some people just draw circles on the rings and fill them in. In this case, you would draw 2 on the first ring and 5 on the second ring. The best way to draw electrons is to draw them as circles with minus signs inside. This indicates not only that they are electrons, but helps remind the viewer that electrons contain a negative charge.