the.com/valence electron
The outermost electrons that do all the social networking so the core ones never have to.
means The electrons in an atom's outermost shell that determine how it bonds with other atoms, making them the whole basis of chemistry.
from From Latin 'valentia,' meaning strength or capacity — the same root as 'valor' and 'value.' Chemists borrowed it in the 1800s to describe an atom's combining power, its capacity to link up with others. By the early 1900s, once electrons were understood to be the actual agents of bonding, the term narrowed to name the specific outer electrons responsible for that power.
- location
- live in the outermost shell, farthest from nucleus
- job
- determine bonding, reactivity, and chemical personality
- noble gases
- have full valence shells, hence their antisocial calm
- metals vs nonmetals
- metals donate them, nonmetals hoard them greedily