Discuss the orbital shapes of the following covalent molecules:
(i) H₂ (ii) F₂ (iii) O₂ (iv) N₂.

(i) H₂ molecule: The electronic configuration of hydrogen is 1s¹. Half filled orbital of one hydrogen atom overlaps with that of the other hydrogen having an electron in opposite spin to from H₂ molecule.

(ii) F₂ molecule: The F₂ molecule is formed by the overlapping of two half filled p-orbitals of two fluorine atoms. The electronic configuration of Fluorine is 1s² 2s² 2p⁵. Thus Overlapping of the orbital forms F₂ molecule.

(iii) O₂ molecule: The electronic configuration of oxygen (Z = 8) is 
Thus oxygen atom has two half filled atomic orbitals. The oxygen molecule is formed when two half filled p-orbitals of each oxygen atom overlap with the two half filled p-orbitals of the other oxygen atom. This results in the formation of a double bond between two oxygen atoms (O = O).

(iv) N₂ molecule: The electronic configuration of nitrogen atom (Z = 7) is  

The nitrogen atom has three half filled atomic orbitals. In the formation of N₂ molecule, each of the three half, filled orbitals of one nitrogen atom overlaps with the three half filled orbitals of the other nitrogen atom.
This leads to the formation of a triple bond between two nitrogen atoms (N ≡ N).