Characterize a carbon atom according to its position in the periodic table.

Carbon is a chemical element on the periodic table that has the symbol C and atomic number 6. The abundant non-metallic tetravalent element carbon has several allotropic forms:
diamonds (the hardest mineral). Bonding structure: 4 electrons in three-dimensional so-called sp3-orbitals;
graphite (one of the softest substances). Binding structure: 3 electrons in 2-dimensional sp2-orbitals and 1 electron in s-orbitals.
Covalent bonded sp1 orbitals are only of chemical interest.