International journal of molecular sciences
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This paper develops a connection between the phenomenology of chemical bonding and the theory of relativity. Empirical correlations between electron numbers in atoms and chemical bond stabilities in molecules are first reviewed and extended. ⋯ Striking patterns in ionization potentials are revealed when the data are viewed in an element-independent way, where element-specific details are removed via an appropriate scaling law. The scale factor involved is not explained by quantum mechanics; it is revealed only when one goes back further, to the development of Einstein's special relativity theory.