Equatorial/Axial Lone Pairs

[FDeCastro_1B]

Is it preferred that the lone pair is equatorial or axial on seesaw?

[KeyaV1C]

They prefer the equatorial position

[Jada Brown 2H]

equatorial because otherwise the space between electrons would not be maximized and the repulsion between electrons would be too much.

[Adam Kramer 1A]

It prefers equatorial because, in the full shape, the closest angle is 90 degrees, so you would want to remove one of the closest atoms to maximize the repulsion of the electrons and create the lowest energy.