Octahedral

[Brice McKeown 3D]

Why is the shape when there is six regions of electron density, all of which are bonding pairs, octahedral and and not hexahedral? Like the shape of four regions of electron density, all of which are bonding pairs, is called tetrahedral.

[Sara Lakamsani 4D]

They are named by the shape they form. If you were to connect the dots between four areas of electron density in our model, it would form a 3d shape with 4 triangular faces or planes so we call it tetrahedral. If you do this with the arrangement of 6 areas of electron density, it forms a 3d shape with eight triangular faces so we call it octahedral.

[305117729]

Octahedral shape refers to the geometry that has eight faces, oct meaning eight. An octahedral molecule has six electron density, one at the top, one at the bottom, and four in the middle, forming eight faces in total. Just try to visualize an octahedral molecule, and see how the geometry is shaped.