One way to understand the reactivities of compounds is to identify the strengths of their bonds, because weak bonds can often be broken easily. A guide to bond strength is bond order. Deduce the ground-state electron configuration of the fluorine molecule and calculate its bond order.

ANTICIPATE Since the Lewis structure ofyou should anticipate that the bond order is 1.

PLAN Set up the molecular orbital energy-level diagram and use the building-up principle to accommodate the valence electrons as described in Toolbox 2G.1. Then calculate the bond order from the resulting configuration.

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F₂ is: F-F:,