Textbook 2E15B

[Connie Liang 3L]

How come in the answer manual the bond angles are approximately 120 degrees and 90 degrees and not less than 120 degrees and less than 90 degrees? Isn't a see saw shape supposed to mean that the bond angles are "less than" because there's a lone pair?

[SophiaBarden 2E]

Yes but actually calculating bond angles are beyond the scope of this class so most of the time, we just state that the angles are approximations

[Edward Tang 1k]

They are pretty close to 90 and 120 so saying approximately is pretty much equivalent to saying less than

[Connie Liang 3L]

Got it. I was confused because for other questions the answer had "less than" so I was wondering why didn't this one have it too. Thanks for clarifying.