bond lengths

[connie 2C]

professor lavelle said something about how double bond lengths are 1.2 A and how single bond lengths are 1.4 A. how come the bond lengths were 1.24 A for the example from today's lecture?

[Anika Chakrabarti 1A]

I think this happens because the double bond can occur at three different locations (remember the three different structure diagrams for NO3 that he showed in class), so this bond length of 1.24 A is kind of like an average or combination of the different structures.

[Ying Yan 1F]

The bond length was 1.24 Angstrom because that molecules was exhibits resonance. The 1.24 Angstrom means that the bonds in the NO₃ molecule are hybrid between a double bond and a single bond. Hope that helps!

[romina_4C]

Adding on to the other answers, the molecule has resonance, and the more resonance structures a molecule has, the more stable it is.

[McKenna_4A]

Also remember that this bond isn't actually "rotating" around the atom. Lots of chem textbooks make it out to be like this. Just remember that the bond lengths will be an average.