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There is a sharp distinction between ionic and covalent bonds when the geometric arrangements of atoms in compounds are considered. In essence, ionic bonding is nondirectional, whereas covalent bonding is directional. That is, in ionic compounds there is no intrinsically preferred direction in which a neighbour should lie for the strength of bonding to be maximized. In contrast, in a covalently bonded compound, the atoms adopt specific locations relative to one another, as in the tetrahedral arrangement of hydrogen atoms around the central carbon atom in methane, CH4, or the angular arrangement of atoms in H2O. The lack of directionality ...(100 of 27318 words)