Why do chemists use the lewis symbols to represent chlorine and sodium rather than drawing the electron diagrams of each element before and after the reaction? a) lewis symbols are easier to use. b) lewis symbols are more scientific. c) lewis symbols are more accurate. d) lewis symbols are more abstract.

A

Explanation:

The answer is A, when you drawing the electron diagrams for each element you should draw all the electron for given element.

In the example of sodium and chlorine:

Sodium : 1s2, 2s2 2p6, 3s1

Chlorine: 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s2 3p5

All the electron on the 1 and 2 levels will not be used to this representation because they will not leave the valence band. Only the electrons in the 3 level will interact in this example.

Remember that the sodium will lose an electron and become an cation. This happens because all the element will look for a stable form with the last band having 8 electron.

The chlorine will receive an electron, so the last band will have 8 electron.