Seesaw shape
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Seesaw shape
Can anyone please explain why the seesaw shape would occur? In what circumstance would it appear?
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Re: Seesaw shape
Seesaw shape occurs when you have a molecule with five areas of electron density, one being a lone pair. Normally, such a molecule would have a trigonal bipyramidal shape, but since the lone pair doesn't show up in our visualization of the shape, we can visualize the removal of one atom. This leaves us with the seesaw shape.
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Re: Seesaw shape
Seesaw occurs when a molecule has 5 areas of electron density and 1 lone pair (VSEPR formula: AX4E1).
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Re: Seesaw shape
Seesaw shape occurs when you have 4 atoms surrounding the central atom along with a lone pair. It would occur because during the trigonal bipyramidal, we would have three atoms in the planar, 120 degrees apart, and then an atom on the top and bottom of the central atom, making them 90 degrees from the atoms on the planar. When we remove an atom and replace it with lone pairs, we want the distance from the lone pair to the atoms to be maximized. So we remove one of the atoms on the planar.
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