[Uri]

Why do electrons experience a force of attraction from both nuclei? Because like-charges repel (in this case electrons) shouldn't they experience a force of repulsion between them?

http://ibchem.com/IB/ibfiles/bonding/bon_img/cov2.gif

[Kryolith]

There are both attractive and repulsive interactions. Depends on the distance. You can describe this by potential functions like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennard-Jones_potential

If there weren't attractive interactions you could not even condense a gas.

[Uri]

By why do chemical bonds form?

[Yggdrasil]

Without getting into too much detail, chemical bonds form because the stability gained from the sharing of electrons (e.g. filling octets) is greater than the destabilization from the electrostatic repulsion of overlapping the electron clouds of the atoms.

[Uri]

Without getting into too much detail, chemical bonds form because the stability gained from the sharing of electrons (e.g. filling octets) is greater than the destabilization from the electrostatic repulsion of overlapping the electron clouds of the atoms.

What do you mean by stability and destabilization?

[Yggdrasil]

Stabilizing something means it moves it to a lower potential energy.  Destabilizing something means moving it to a higher potential energy.

[enahs]

Take a look at the following diagram:


As the internuclear distance gets really close, there is repulsion, as they get far apart, there is no attraction. The average bond-length is the distance in which repulsion and attraction are at equilibrium, to simplify.