Resonance

[Saachi_Kotia_4E]

What does it mean when the bonds of the resonance structures are all the same length? How does that compare to a molecule with bonds that have different lengths? And how do we know which of the resonance structures exist in real life?

[Reva Kakaria 1J]

None of the resonance structures we draw as Lewis symbols actually exist in real life, because in an actual molecule that has resonance structures, the double bond is divided up in between the atoms equally. For example, for a nitrate ion, NO3-, we draw the Lewis structure as nitrogen having a double bond with one of the oxygens and a single bond with the other two; but in reality, the actual structure of nitrate has a 1 1/3 bond in between nitrogen and each oxygen. Therefore, the bond's strength is equal in between nitrogen and each oxygen, so each bond is the same length.

[Ashley Zhu 1A]

If you're interested, you can search up "ozone lewis structure" and you'll see that it has two resonance structures, but in reality it exists as something in between like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... dipole.png

[Tinisha 1G]

The bond length allows to have more insight on how strong the bond is as well!

[Charles Gu 1D]

A double bond is stronger than a single bond but single bonds are longer than double bonds.

[Yukta Italia 3I]

When we have to draw Lewis Structures on the midterm do you think we'll have to draw every resonance structure possible?

[Manas_Varma_4B]

The resonance structures themselves don't actually exist in real life, but that's how we are able to model what the structure of the molecule actually looks like, which is an average of all the resonance structures.

[Hannah Pham 1D]

Double bonds are stronger than single bonds and require more energy to break. Triple bonds are stronger than double bonds. They all have different lengths because they have different strengths.

[Brandon Mo 4K]

When we have to draw Lewis Structures on the midterm do you think we'll have to draw every resonance structure possible?

I think you only need to draw the resonance structures for the most stable structure.