What is the characteristic of carbon atoms that most contributes to its importance to biological molecules?

The unique properties of carbon make it a central part of biological molecules. With four valence electrons, carbon can covalently bond to oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen to form the many molecules important for cellular function. Carbon and hydrogen can form either hydrocarbon chains or rings.
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Why is carbon so important in biological molecules?

Carbon is the functional element for living things because it's able to bond in many different ways. It can form many compounds that are essential to life. It can have sp³, sp², or sp hybridization in its compounds. This means that it can form bonds in all three dimensions and make molecules with complicated shapes.
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What characteristics of carbon make it so important?

Carbon has an exceptional ability to bind with a wide variety of other elements. Carbon makes four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds, allowing carbon atoms to form multiple stable bonds with other small atoms, including hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
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Why is carbon the most important element?

One of the most important chemical elements is carbon. This is because it is the main element in all living things, and because it can make so many different compounds. Unlike most elements, pure carbon can exist in different forms.
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What are four important characteristics about carbon atoms?

The chemical properties of carbon are as follows:
  • The atomic number of carbon is 6.
  • The atomic mass of carbon is 12.011 g. ...
  • The density of the carbon atom is 2.2 g. ...
  • The melting and boiling point of carbon is 3652 °C and 4827 °C, respectively.
  • The Van der Waals radius is 0.091 nm.
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Carbon: The Element of Life



What are three characteristics of carbon that contribute to the diversity of organic compounds?

What are three characteristics of carbon that contribute to the diversity of organic compounds? Carbon can bind to itself, bind covalently to other electrons, and bind to itself and other elements in different arrangements.
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Which of the following characteristics of carbon is responsible for the variety of carbon-based molecules on Earth?

The reason is carbon's ability to form stable bonds with many elements, including itself. This property allows carbon to form a huge variety of very large and complex molecules. In fact, there are nearly 10 million carbon-based compounds in living things!
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Why is carbon important to the human body?

Carbon is the basic building block required to form proteins, carbohydrates and fats, and it plays a crucial role in regulating the physiology of the body. Gaseous and liquid compounds that contain carbon also can affect the body.
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Why are atoms important to the human body?

Every day, our bodies take in new atoms from the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the liquids we drink. These atoms are incorporated into our cells and fuel the chemical processes that keep us alive.
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Which property of the carbon atom makes it an essential component of organic compounds?

What property of carbon makes it essential for organic life? Carbon is unique and found in all living things because it can form up to four covalent bonds between atoms or molecules.
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Which characteristic allows carbon atoms to form chains and rings with other carbon atoms?

Because each carbon is identical, they all have four valence electrons, so they can easily bond with other carbon atoms to form long chains or rings.
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What are characteristics of carbon bonds?

A carbon atom can bond with four other atoms and is like the four-hole wheel, while an oxygen atom, which can bond only to two, is like the two-hole wheel. Carbon's ability to form bonds with four other atoms goes back to its number and configuration of electrons.
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Which characteristic enables carbon to form various types of compounds?

  • a) The two features of carbon which lead to form huge number of compounds are:
  • 1) Catenation - It is the linkage of atoms of the same element into longer chains. ...
  • 2) Tetravalency -A tetravalence is the state of an atom with four electrons available for covalent chemical bonding in its valence (outermost electron shell).
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Which of the following properties of carbon is mainly responsible for its ability to form large number of compounds?

Solution : The two features of carbon that give rise to a large number of compounds are as follows: <br> (i) Catenation: It is the ability to form bonds with other atoms of carbon. <br> (ii) Tetravalency: With the valency of four, carbon is capable of bonding with four other atoms.
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Which of the following properties of carbon mainly contributes to the ability of carbon atoms to form millions of compounds?

Catenation (self linking of carbon atoms to form long chains) and Tetravalency are the two properties of carbon which lead to the formation of a large number of carbon compounds.
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What type of element is carbon give some information about it?

carbon (C), nonmetallic chemical element in Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table. Although widely distributed in nature, carbon is not particularly plentiful—it makes up only about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust—yet it forms more compounds than all the other elements combined.
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What elements does carbon bond with to make up the molecules of life?

What elements does carbon bond with to make up life's molecules? Carbon can bond w/ many elements, including hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen to form molecules of life. Carbon has the ability to form millions of different large and complex structures.
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What type of bonds do carbon atoms form?

Carbon Forms Covalent Bonds

The most common type of bond formed by carbon is a covalent bond. In most cases, carbon shares electrons with other atoms (usual valence of 4). This is because carbon typically bonds with elements which have a similar electronegativity.
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Why do carbon atoms form many organic compounds?

Carbon is the only element that can form so many different compounds because each carbon atom can form four chemical bonds to other atoms, and because the carbon atom is just the right, small size to fit in comfortably as parts of very large molecules.
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What property of a carbon atom mostly contributes to its ability to form such a diverse range of molecules?

What property of carbon most contributes to its ability to form such a diverse range of molecules? Explanation: Carbon has four valance electrons, allowing it to form a wide range of bonds with other atoms.
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What property of carbon is responsible for formation of millions of organic compounds?

Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The study of the properties, reactions, and syntheses of organic compounds comprise the discipline known as organic chemistry.
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Which property of carbon is responsible for carbon's ability to form unsaturated hydrocarbons?

Solution : Catenation property of carbon.
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What is the most important molecule in the body?

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. It's probably your body's most famous molecule, and rightfully so. It's the one that tells yourselves what proteins to make, as well as how and where.
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How are atoms and molecules important for life processes?

ATOMS AND MOLECULES ARE IMPORTANT TO CELL PROCESSES. IN ORDER TO MAKE ENERGY,WHICH ARE ATP MOLECULE, A CELL MUST USE GLUCOSE AND SIX OXYGEN MOLECULE TO CREATE IT. ATOMS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THE CELL TO FUNCTION, and all of the cells are made up of trillions of atoms.
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What does molecule mean in biology?

Molecules are made up of one or more atoms. If they contain more than one atom, the atoms can be the same (an oxygen molecule has two oxygen atoms) or different (a water molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom). Biological molecules, such as proteins and DNA, can be made up of many thousands of atoms.
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