Interpreting Residual Entropies

[Sandeep Gurram 2E]

When you are interpreting residual entropies for of a particular compound, how do you know how many orientations it can assume?

The example in the textbook showed that FClO₃ had four orientations as it was tetrahedral. Is the molecular shape the only indicator of how many orientations a compound can assume? Or are there other factors?

[Chem_Mod]

Residual entropy is the remaining possible disorder when the substance is cooled to 0 Kelvin thus stopping all kinetic motion. So it is just the disorder resulting from possible variation in orientation. For example, the tetrahedral molecule FClO3 has four orientations while bromobenzene has six.