A common form of elemental phosphorus is the tetrahedral P4 molecule, where all four pho...

A common form of elemental phosphorus is the tetrahedral P₄ molecule, where all four phosphorus atoms are equivalent:

At room temperature phosphorus is a solid. (a) Do you think there are any unshared pairs of electrons in the P₄ molecule? (b) How many bonds are there in the molecule? (c) Can you draw a Lewis structure for a linear P₄ molecule that satisfies the octet rule? (d) Using formal charges, what can you say about the stability of the linear molecule versus that of the tetrahedral molecule?