whats the difference between covelant bonding and ionic bonding explain what both are please

Covalent bonding is the 'sharing' of valence(outer shell) electrons between atoms to form a molecule.

 

Ionic bonding is a bond formed between to ionised(positive and negative) atoms. I think covalent is much stronger although weak ionic bonds can form between dipoles(atoms that are not fully ionised). Can someone verify this last point for me because my chemistry is a bit dismal at times.

I was going to say the exact same thing.

Water is an example of a substance that forms a polar covalant bond. (electron sharing)

Magnesium chloride is an example of an ionic bond. (opposites attracted)

These links hopefully will help you further:

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~chem322a/resources/ch1/covalent.html

http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/cov_IonicBs.html

http://www.bcpl.net/~kdrews/interactions/interactions.html

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/153Acompare.html

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/bond.html

Hope those are enough to put you on the right track...

thanks for the info it was usefull

linus pauling defined ionic bonds as having electronegativity differences of greater than 1.7 or bonds involving polyatomic ions. covalent bonds have electronegativity differences of less than or equal to 1.7.

 

i actually have two questions about this myself:

do ionic structures have hybrid orbitals?

do compounds like fluorine nitrate have hybrid orbitals? (fluorine and the nitrate anion are very, very electronegative).

i just bought linus paulings book "general chemistry" man...its informative...lol. to say the least.

yeah it's a great book. ever read the nature of the chemical bond?