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A molecule is a group of two or more atoms linked together to form one unit. They are linked together by chemical bonds. The four types of chemical bonds are covalent, ionic, hydrogen or van der Waals'.
A '''molecule''' is a group of two or more atoms linked together to form one unit. They are linked together by chemical bonds. The four types of chemical bonds are covalent, ionic, hydrogen or van der Waals'.
A molecule can consist of a single element only, or more than one.
The list of single-element compounds is relatively short, mostly represented by gases which usually form stable compounds of two atoms, although there are some interesting [[man-made]] examples such as "Bucky balls", which are pure [[carbon]], with the atoms arranged in a geodesic pattern.
Molecules are described in many ways, depending on the information that needs to be conveyed. The simplest is simply a list of the elements with subscripts representing the number of that element's atoms that are present. Often part of the molecule is listed separately in order to show some of its properties. There are more complex, but still text based, ways of "describing" the molecule's entire structure. We also use three dimensional "ball and stick" or "space filling" diagrams to show the complete physical arrangement of the atoms in the molecule.
==References==
==References==