LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Although much less abundant than nitrogen and oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, carbon dioxide is an important constituent of our planet’s air. A molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2) is made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.

Detailed explanation-2: -A molecule of carbon dioxide has 2 atoms (2 atoms of oxygen and 1 atom of carbon) in it.

Detailed explanation-3: -For example, two oxygen atoms combine with one atom of carbon to form carbon dioxide. Hence, the subscript 2 in CO2 C O 2 represents the proportion of oxygen combines with carbon.

Detailed explanation-4: -The carbon dioxide molecule is formed from one carbon atom and two oxygens. As an element, carbon only has 4 outer shell electrons and oxygen has 6. Double covalent bonds form between the atoms, where two electrons from each atom are shared making 4 bonding electrons in total.

Detailed explanation-5: -There is only one carbon atom, so we won’t add a prefix to the word “carbon.” But there are two oxygen atoms, so we need to add the prefix di-in front of the word “oxide.” So now we know that CO2 is a molecule which contains one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen and has the name carbon dioxide.