What are the unique characteristics of carbon, which give it the ability to form a vast array of chemical substances?

Carbon has an exceptional ability to bind with a wide variety of other elements. Carbon makes four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds, allowing carbon atoms to form multiple stable bonds with other small atoms, including hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

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the atomic number will stay the same no matter how many electrons it has, so it doesn’t decrease nor increase. it’ll only change with a different number of protons