Science Help!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Question

A sodium atom has one outer electron, and a carbon atom has four outer electrons.How might this difference be related to the types of compounds formed by atoms of these two elements?

Answer 1

do you know the compounds?

ionic, atoms transfer, or "give away" and "take" electrons from each other

molecular, atoms "share" electrons with each other

since sodium only has one outer electron, it would just need to use energy one time to "give away" its electron to another atom thus forming an ionic compound

carbon has 4 outer electrons so to "give away" all its electrons and form an ionic compound it woudl need to expend a lot of energy. instead carbon "shares" its electrons with other atoms, forming a molecular compound