What does an atom's position on the periodic table indicate about how many bonds an atom can form? In your answer, explain how many bonds oxygen (O), carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) can form.

2 bonds for oxygen

4 bonds for carbon

3 bonds for nitrogen

How to know?

Look at the number of valence electrons

for oxgen the electronic configuration is 2.6 to form an octet full electronic configuration it needs two more valence electrons so it can form two bonds

for carbon electronic configuration is 2.4 to make an octet it needs 4 more valence and thus can form 4 bonds

for nitrogen its electronic configuration is 2.5 so to make octet it needs 3 electrons

the electronic configuration can be gotten from its atomic number and the sequence is always 2.8.8 for the first 20 elements in periodic table