strain

[danielashirazi_1L]

what types of strain do cyclobutanes have?

[Samiksha Chopra 2I]

If all the C are in the plane then torsional strain would occur because all the hydrogens are eclipsed. There is no steric strain because the H atoms are not large enough to actually occupy each others space. However, cyclobutane typically adopts the butterfly conformation which relieves steric strain. In both the planar and butterfly form there is a large amount of bond angle strain because the angle is about 88 degrees which is pretty far away from the ideal 109.5.