lone pairs and bond angle

[Divya Pimparkar 1E]

Why exactly do lone pairs decrease bond angles?

[Samantha Hoegl Roy 2C]

because lone pairs repel the other atoms more as they are more electronegative (2 e- are much more strongly negative than a bond)

[Elaine Pham 2E]

In addition, lone pairs, because of electron repulsion, "push" down onto the other bond angles to make them smaller.

[Tony Chung 2I]

This is because the lone pairs push away the other atoms resulting in a larger bond angle.

[daniella_knight1I]

The lone electrons repel each other so they squish the other bonds together making the angle smaller.

[Kavya Juwadi 3C]

For example, a molecule with 4 bonds has a bond angle of 109.5 degrees while a molecule with 3 bonds and one lone pair has a bond angle of less than a 109.5 degress

[Anna O 2C]

Lone pairs have more repulsive energy than electrons engaged in a bond between two atoms because they aren't being "tied down" by the positive energy of two atoms. Thus they have more "push" per say and can repel nearby atoms more than bonded electrons can. When this happens, the nearby atoms are pushed away and toward each other to allow more room for the lone pair that takes up more space. This results in smaller bond angles between the atoms because they are now in closer proximity than when they were more evenly dispersed around the central atom.