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Topic: Why is a water molcule in a V shape?  (Read 8113 times)

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Offline quantum_toothpaste

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Why is a water molcule in a V shape?
« on: June 19, 2010, 10:23:34 AM »
Water molecules make a V shape rather than a straight line, why is that?

The angle is supposed to be 104.45 degrees.. how is that calculated?

Offline Jorriss

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Re: Why is a water molcule in a V shape?
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2010, 12:14:29 PM »
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSEPR_theory read on this.

Summary version: electron pairs influence the geometry.

Offline uvcyclotron

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Re: Why is a water molcule in a V shape?
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2010, 02:18:19 AM »
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSEPR_theory read on this.

Summary version: electron pairs influence the geometry.

Joriss is correct, you might be knowing that in a water molecule, the central O atom is in sp3 hybridization, where there are 2 bond-pair electrons, and 2 lone pair e-, these arrange in a tetrahedral geometry in 3-D space, which results in the H--O--H bond appearing like a V.
Any physical theory is always provisional: you can never prove it. But you can always disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory!

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