Bond Order

[Sahand Fardi 1]

how does bond order relate to stability?

[Ashley Van Belle 2B]

If atoms share a triple bond, that is surely shorter and stronger than that of a double bond, and a double bond is shorter and stronger than that of a single bond. The more bonds that atoms share, the more stable it is.
Bond order tells us the number of chemical bonds between a pair of atoms, and therefore indicates the stability of a bond. If the bond order is 3, then there is a triple bond. If the bond order is 2, there is a double bond. With this you can indicated if the interaction between two atoms is more stable than another.
I know that one thing that confused me was the concept of having bond orders of 2.5 or 3.5 - not whole numbers. I then realized that these numbers simply represent the idea of "resonance" and how an electron can be delocalized, having the bond length and strength somewhere between that of the higher and lower bond orders.

Hope this helped!

[Mai V 4L]

I know that triple bonds are shorter but can someone explain why they are? As in why is it not the same length as 3 single bonds

[darchen3G]

how does bond order relate to stability?

In a triple bond, the electron density is higher in that region which results in the nuclei of the atoms being closer together.