Lewis Dot Structure and Molecular Shape

There is a great little tool in chemistry that is used to determine molecular structures called Lewis dot structures, or just Lewis structures. 

Lewis dot structures were developed by Gilbert Newton Lewis as a way to teach his students about chemical bonding. He published a paper describing his tool in 1916, and the technique caught on. 

When you learn how to draw Lewis dot structures, you can determine:

• How atoms bond within a molecule
• The shape of the molecule
• The charge on the molecule