Showing resonance

[emaad_3H]

Is there a way that we are supposed to show whether a compound has resonance? Are we supposed to do the double arrow?

[Anna Chen 1K]

Yes, you can use the double arrows to draw a lewis structure's resonance structures.

[405318478]

I would either write out all resonance structures, or, if all resonances structures contribute equally to the hybrid, draw the solid and double lines in one structure.

[Martina]

You can use the solid and dashed lines or you can draw all of the possible lewis structures and explain that the resonance is a hybrid of all of them.

[Daniel Yu 1E]

What about drawing like curves and circles? I've seen those on the internet.

[Eesha Sohail 1D]

Can you elaborate on what that would look like? Maybe with a link. It sounds fine to me, but doesn't hurt to check.

[Fdonovan 3D]

I think that if they ask us for it we can just draw multiple variations of the molecule. So if it was O-N=O and they said draw the resonance structure you would just do O=N-O (this is missing the lone pairs of course!)

[Lauren Sanchez 3D]

What about the example where we just drew a pentagon with a circle in the middle? Could that work?

[EricZhao3G]

You would show resonance by drawing all of the possible Lewis diagrams with the lowest formal charges for the molecule and then by drawing a double-ended arrow between the structures. The double-ended arrow shows resonance between the structures.