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General Science / Re: heat resistant substance
« on: 31/08/2005 13:06:36 »quote:
Originally posted by David Sparkman
As a metallurgist, I would say you are splitting hairs. People understand ionic and covalent. Metallic is only a special case of covalent.
I think metallic bonds are significantly different from covalent bonds, and that the difference is instructive. Chemically, a covalent bond consists of a pair of shared electrons. In metals, the electrons behave very differently. The resulting difference in the material's properties is enormous. I don't think it is at all accurate to say that metals are made of molecules; it isn't useful to think of them that way.
In this case, I am of the opinion that the distinction is both useful and instructive. I don't see any reason to gloss over it when it's not difficult to understand the difference.