Final answer:
Carbon has a total of four valence electrons, represented by four dots in its Lewis dot structure. These dots are arranged around the carbon symbol, signifying that carbon can form up to four bonds, as exemplified in methane (CH4). Lewis dot diagrams are valuable for visualizing bonding possibilities and electron arrangements.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Lewis dot structure for carbon shows that carbon has four valence electrons. In drawing the Lewis electron dot diagram for carbon, two dots are drawn together on one side to represent the 2s electrons and the dots for the two 2p electrons are conventionally drawn on different sides. This results in a total of four dots around the symbol for carbon (C), with each dot representing one unpaired electron.
Lewis dot symbols are useful in predicting how many bonds an atom can form, with each unpaired dot indicating the potential to form one covalent bond. For instance, in methane (CH4), carbon forms four bonds with hydrogen atoms, using these four valence electrons.
The importance of Lewis dot diagrams in bonding is that they provide a visual representation of the electrons that are available for bonding in an atom, which helps in predicting the arrangement of atoms in a molecule.