How many hydrogen atoms is each oxygen atom in ice bound to?

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In ice, each oxygen atom is bound to two hydrogen atoms. This arrangement forms a stable molecular structure where each oxygen atom shares covalent bonds with two hydrogen atoms, resulting in the chemical formula H2O, which describes water. When water freezes to form ice, the molecules arrange themselves into a crystalline structure that maximizes hydrogen bonding, but the covalently bonded ratio of two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom remains unchanged.

The other options do not accurately represent the molecular structure of ice. For instance, one hydrogen atom, three hydrogen atoms, or four hydrogen atoms bound to a single oxygen atom do not occur in either liquid water or ice, as they would not be consistent with the established bonding characteristics of water molecules. Hence, the correct understanding is that each oxygen atom in ice is bonded to two hydrogen atoms.

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