Confused About Bonding?

Covalent bonding, ionic bonding or metallic bonding....

What is the difference and how do you know which one is happening in a molecule?

In this article lets look at metallic bonding:

Metallic bonding as the name suggest is seen when you just have metal atoms together.

To decide if an element is a metal you need to look at which group it sits in on the periodic table.

Group 1 or group 2 or the big block in the middle (called transition metals?) if yes to any of these you have metallic bonding holding atoms together.

Metals are usually solids at room temperature and have nice ordered structures. Imagine organising marbles into nice neat rows and columns. There should be small gaps between your marbles as you can not push them completely together. These gaps mean electrons can move between the metal atoms and allow electricity to flow.