Oblique paired electron dot bonds

[Chris Clemens]

I am handling a Chemistry textbook. It uses electron dots in a way that I've never seen before. The bonds in the attached image have been described as Lewis structures, but the form shown in the attached print is not represented in the Chemistry code.

Has anyone handled structures like this before?

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[Chris Clemens]

We checked with someone knowledgeable in chemistry. Those are paired electron dots, so you would use 1456. Look at example 4.1.5-2 in the Chemistry Code book. It appears very similar to the example you attached.

[Chris Clemens]

That is the symbol I used for the paired electron dots. I was totally dissatisfied with the outcome. [attached]
Since this project has already shipped, I hope I haven't hopelessly confused the student with my treatment.
Thanks for following up.
edited by braillepro on 3/24/2014

[dworthing]

Could you send an example of that construction in its print context?

[dworthing]

I realize you have already sent this work off to the student, but I would like to offer a solution to this problem for others who are reading this post.

The print copy you attached shows electron dots as large black dots, with two placed linearly rather than paired. This is something new to us --we have no example like this in our codebook-- but I think I understand the purpose of this unusual presentation. In order to maintain the spacing of the top three hydrogen symbols, the standard way of showing two electron dots (in print) will not allow room on the flat page.

My basic understanding of these drawings is that they represent the shared electrons that are vibrating in a field which creates the bond. So whether they are shown as pairs or as individuals is not the issue. I have attached a possible solution to the braille transcription of this drawing. Just as the printer had to use stacked large electron dots in order to keep the hydrogen symbols independent, if we use single electron dots (one for each black dot) we can achieve the necessary spacing too.

The attached docx file shows both the print and braille version.
Note that the second hydrogen on line 4 must be moved right one cell to keep it away from the rightmost electron dot on line 3.

[Lindy Walton]

[quote=Lindy]So whether they are shown as pairs or as individuals is not the issue.[/quote]
Thanks for this answer.

I was concerned that the single v. paired bonds was important. (This was an introductory chapter about different types of bonds.)

Sidenote: No matter how thorough and complete Braille codes appear, there always seems to be weird outliers in these textbooks.

Thank goodness for this forum

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