Thread: Covalent Bonding question

Hello friends, I just joined the forum and I would really appreaciate an answer to this question. I'm in 10th grade, and we've been studying chemical bonding.
My question is, how and why does the name of a chemical change, i.e. hydrogen becaomes hydroxide or nitrogen becomes nitrate.
Thanks alot to anyone who contributes !

The name changes simply because the substance changes and is not the same thing as its unbonded constituent elements. Sodium and chlorine could both potentially kill you in their elemental form...but sodium chloride is necessary to survive. It has very different properties, and thus is given a different name. There are rules for forming the names of chemicals...and especially many rules in organic chemistry, since the molecules can be quite complex.

The name changes because the composition changes and its definitely a rule which we have to obey.

For instance, with a diatomic like Oxygen (O2), when its used to form a compound like CaO, we have: Calcium Oxide. Its just the Rule ^^.

And one more example is NO3 (nitrate) and NO2 (nitrite). Nah, "ate" and "ite" just used to distinguish between NO3 and NO2

Hope my answer can help you ^^