General Science Quiz: Chemical Bonding and Reactions

In a double displacement reaction two compounds exchange their ions, so both reactants must be compounds. Here hydrogen and oxygen are elements combining to form a single product, water, which makes it a combination reaction and also a combustion and redox reaction, but certainly not a double displacement.

Ethylene, also called ethene, has the formula C2H4, and its two carbon atoms share two pairs of electrons, which is a carbon-carbon double bond made of one sigma and one pi bond; it is the simplest alkene.

Benzene has the formula C6H6 and a ring of six carbon atoms, each carrying one hydrogen. Count the sigma bonds first: six carbon-carbon bonds around the ring and six carbon-hydrogen bonds give twelve sigma bonds.

An amphoteric oxide reacts with both acids and bases to give a salt and water. Aluminium oxide dissolves in hydrochloric acid to give aluminium chloride and in sodium hydroxide to give sodium aluminate, so it behaves as a base in one case and as an acid in the other.

Vegetable oils contain unsaturated fatty acids with carbon-carbon double bonds, and when hydrogen is passed through the oil at about 60 degrees Celsius in the presence of finely divided nickel, the double bonds add hydrogen and become saturated, turning the liquid oil into semi-solid vanaspati.

In an ionic or electrovalent bond a metal atom loses one or more electrons to a non-metal atom; the metal becomes a positive ion and the non-metal a negative ion, and the electrostatic attraction between the two holds the compound together, as in sodium chloride and magnesium oxide.

A nitrogen atom has five valence electrons and needs three more to complete its octet, so two nitrogen atoms share three pairs of electrons and form a triple bond, written N to N with three lines.

Zinc is above hydrogen in the reactivity series, so it displaces hydrogen from a dilute acid: zinc and dilute hydrochloric acid give zinc chloride and hydrogen gas.

Rusting is a slow oxidation in which iron combines with oxygen in the presence of moisture to form hydrated iron oxide, the reddish-brown flaky substance we call rust.

In methane the carbon atom is joined to four hydrogen atoms by four single bonds and has no lone pair, so the four bonding pairs push one another as far apart as possible and point to the corners of a regular tetrahedron, with bond angles of about 109.5 degrees.