Me fill in the bank. carbon (c) appears in the second row of the periodic table and has bonding electrons in its valence shell. carbon electrons to satisfy its valence shell. so carbon can form four bonds with other atoms, each bond consisting of one of carbon's electrons and one of the bonding atom's electrons. organic chemicals get their diversity from the many different ways carbon can bond to other atoms. the simplest organic chemicals, called , contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms; the simplest hydrocarbon, methane, contains a single carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms: carbon can also bond with other carbon atoms! the uniqueness of carbon comes from the fact that it can bond to many different ways: it can form long chains, branched chains, and rings. finally, carbon atoms can in addition to single carbon-carbon bonds. four double and triple bonds eight hydrocarbons itself