[Adamdiagne]

It is easy to understand how energy must be supplied in order to break bonds (Imagine using your strength to break a rubber band, using up your energy), thus how breaking bonds consume energy. However i find it difficult to find the logic behind how forming bonds releases energy  I know that since forming bonds is the opposite process of breaking bonds, what happens also must be opposite (releasing energy is the opposite of consuming energy) but i would like to know the logic behind it.

[Corribus]

This is a question with a lot of possible answers and I'm not sure which one will best satisfy you.

So let's ask a simpler one: Why does a ball roll down a hill?  When it does so, does it "release" energy?

[magician4]

it might be helpful to remember that forming a bond doesn't release energy per se : there's a lot of substances around with a positive  Δ H_f  (with respect to the elements they're composed of)

hence, some bonds also might store energy


as a result a system will always form bonds "at free will" only when there is a net loss of energy for the system thereafter (and if kinetics allow for the process in the first place) - and otherwise has to be forced to do so by an input of energy into the system (or else nothing will happen)


regards

Ingo