Bond Length and Bond Strength Relationship

[Ayona Sengupta]

I understand the relationship between bond length and bond strength but can someone explain to me the chemical reasoning behind why bond length affects bond strength?

[GabrielGarciaDiscussion1i]

Do me a favor.... grab your friend with one set of locked hands. Then have your other friends try to pull you away, and you'll find it's not that hard and you guys have a lot of space between you.
NOW, grab the other hand and face them and have your other friends try to rip you two apart. It is much harder and the spacing between you and your friend has decreased drastically.
This is a super simplified metaphor for atoms and bonds, hope it helped.

[GabrielGarciaDiscussion1i]

I suppose for the chemical reasoning, one could understand that a single bond is just one interaction between two atoms and that forms a sigma bond. However, with a double bond, we now introduce a pi bond which uses a p orbital to get the two atoms to bond together at two interaction sites.
Then, with a triple bond, you add one more p-orbital with two more interactions on these new p-orbitals between the two.

[Clarissa Molina 1D]

What is the relationship between bond length and bond strength?

[Girija_3E]

Does the relationship between bond length and bond strength only apply for diatomic molecules (like HCl)? Or does it apply for all acids/bases? When do you apply the relationship between bond length and bond strength?

[Seth_Evasco1L]

You look at bond length when comparing when there are differing atoms bonded to the Hydrogen atom. For example, there's HCl and HI. The longer the bond length, the stronger the acid. In this case, HI is the stronger acid because its atomic radius creates that longer bond length in comparison to the H - Cl bond.

However, when looking at oxoacids, they all share the H - O bond so you have to look at the resulting anion that is formed. For example, HOCl and HOBr both share the H - O bond; the only thing different is the end of the molecule. The anions that are formed are OCl^- and OBr^- respectively. The O - Cl bond is much more stable than that of the O - Br bond because the electronegativity of Cl is much greater than that of Br. It acts as an electron withdrawing atom that also makes it easier for the Hydrogen atom to be pulled off as the lone pairs of the Oxygen atom are pulled much more closely to the Cl atom than they are with the Br atom, thus making HOCl the stronger acid.