Trigonal Pyramid vs Trigonal Planar

[Bao Tram Nguyen]

Is there a difference between these two shapes and if you were to put one or the other on the exam, would it affect our grade?

[Kavee Dodampahala 4E]

Trigonal planar has just three areas of electron density. Trigonal pyramidal has four areas of electron density, one of those areas being a lone pair.

[Anthony Hatashita 4H]

If there is a lone pair on the central atom, it makes the overall shape trigonal pyramidal, if there are no lone pairs on the central atom it's planar pretty sure.

[Michelle Xie 2B]

Trigonal planar is in one plane and has three areas of e density while trigonal pyramidal is 3d and has 4 areas.

[Claire Lo 3C]

Also the bond angle is different. Trigonal planar has bond angles of 120 while trigonal pyramidal has bond angles of around 107, so these two are absolutely different.

[RRahimtoola1I]

They are two completely different shapes. Trigonal planar has no lone pairs and 3 bonded pairs while trigonal pyramidal has 1 lone pair and 3 bonded pairs.

[Patricia Chan 1C]

They are different shapes! Trigonal planar has three regions of electron density, all being bonded pairs. Trigonal pyramidal has four regions of electron density, but with three bonded pairs and one lone pair. Hope this helps!