Molecular Geometry Angles [ENDORSED]

[Samantha Toscano 2C]

What main angles do we have to know for sure? The ones which I saw come up a lot on this week's homework was 109.5, 90, and 180.

[Furkan Acar 3C]

Well I don't know if you should memorize angles like this. Try to see the angles with the corresponding shapes. Understand why some angles are 109.5 and others are only 120. I think it'll be easy to understand once you look at the shapes rather than memorizing.

[patienceokani]

Based on the angles we first learned when learning about Lewis Structures, we have to know about 90, 109.5(also when it's less or greater than this angle), 120, and 180. I hope that helped!!

[Hayden Jackson]

I agree with the previous reply, however you are correct that there are a couple that will come up a majority of the time, but that is because of the shapes from which they arise. Many molecules we see have central atoms bonded to 3 other atoms, such as CO3^2-. If you were to think about spacing the 3 atoms apart around a 360 degree circle, the maximum angle between each would be 120, which is why 120 comes up a bunch. 180 also because that is for linear molecules, and then 109.5 results from the tetrahedral shape, or 4 bonding regions. Also, make sure you think about how nonbonding pairs would affect angles, because they have slightly more repulsive power than bonding regions.

[Amine Adlouni 1L]

We need to memorize all the bond angles of the different molecular geometries of molecules up to 6 electron dense regions. What I do to memorize them is using the VSEPR chart, which includes the bonding angles for every shape. As you practice more and/or memorize them, you'll be able to provide bond angles for any molecule.

[Isabelle Rieke-Wey 2G]

Hi!
I think we have to know 90,109.5,120, and 180, based off what we learned during lecture when learning VSEPR.

[Miranda Hess 3I]

The main angle measures as listed in the above comments are right. In one of the Step Up sessions, there were extra angles due to electron repulsion and we didn't have to learn those.

[haryn Shin 1H]

I believe you would need to know all types of the molecular geometry (like tetrahedral, linear, bent, etc) and their corresponding bond angles ( for example, linear is 180 and angular/bent is slightly less than 120). Hope this helps!

[Furkan Acar 3C]

Pretty much the angles for the main shapes we know. we have to know those angles i think.

[Matthew Nguyen 3G]

Those are the main angles we needed to know and were taught during the lecture. The only other angles that might occur are during electron repulsion.

[Daniel Tabibian 3K]

The main ones are 180, 120, 109.5, and 90. You should also know that unpaired electrons on the central atom will affect these angles, making them slightly smaller.

[Ameen Shaheen 2I]

To be honest, I would try to understand why they are certain angles and correlate them in order to memorize them quicker and easier. Otherwise, especially with bond angles, one can get lost easily.

[Morgan Micallef 1A]

I believe the main angles we have to know are 180, 120, 109.5, and 90