Naming Shapes

[rikolivares]

Hello! For the exam and tests, is it better to straight up memorize the shape names or is there easy way to derive the names from the number of lone pairs and bonds?

[Brian Chang 2H]

In all honesty, there are only 2 tricky bits to shapes.

1. Tetrahedral angles are 109.5 degrees (Not intuitive like everything else is.)

2. For shapes with 5 regions of electron density, lone pairs are placed along the equatorial plane first instead of the axial plane.

[Minsub Lee 3E]

For sake of saving time of future exams, I would say that it is best to memorize the shapes.

[chaggard]

It is best to memorize the basic structure because the higher electron densities are pretty straightforward

[Nadeen 3D]

Hello,
Memorizing the shapes would be ideal but also understanding when to use them. There are problems that are trying to trick you, so just really try to memorize but understand how to name them. Hope this helped.

[almaochoa2D]

I've just memorized the shapes it is the quickest way to name molecules which is really important for the test since you don't want to run out of time.