Answer:
There is one single covalent bond between two carbon atoms.
Explanation:
We know that sharing of electrons form covalent bonds.
If we look upon K,L,M ,N shells of the carbon and hydrogen atoms.
We found that Hydrogen is having only [tex]1[/tex] electron in K shell.
And Carbon on the other hand is having [tex]2[/tex] electrons in K shell and [tex]4[/tex] electrons in L shell.
So carbon have [tex]4[/tex] valence electrons,and it can share [tex]4[/tex] bonds with any relevant atom to complete its octet.
And Hydrogen requires [tex]1[/tex] electron to complete its doublet.
Alkane general formula [tex]C_{n}H_{2n+2}[/tex]
For ethane [tex]n=2[/tex]
[tex]C_{2}H_{4+2}[/tex] [tex]=[/tex] [tex]C_{2}H_{6}[/tex]
[tex]1[/tex] Carbon atom is shared by [tex]3[/tex] Hydrogen.
The remaining one electron [tex](4-3)=1[/tex] of carbon will be shared with another carbon atom.
An image of the sharing of electrons attached below,
Hence we have only [tex]1[/tex] covalent bond between the two.
