Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

BioTechproject t1_j14aw5t wrote

Reply to comment by gardenfella in Are carbon's unique traits related in any way to the "most efficient stacking" hexagon thing that leads to snowflakes and beehives? by uwu-nyaa

Water has less than a 120° angle.

In the case of carbon it's sp² hybridized, other hybridizations like sp³ form angles of ~109.45°, while sp forms 180°.

Something like bor that's sp³ hybridized also can form hexagons due to the same reason. It's simply triangular shaped.

Also also: That's just the average bond angle. Due to temperature it fluctuates.

7

aphilsphan t1_j17a83p wrote

Carbon can be thought of as hybridized sp, as in acetylene where the bond angles are 180, sp2, as in benzene (120) or sp3, as in methane, (109.5).

The oxygen in water has 2 lone pairs and two protons around it so it’s best to think about it as sp3 hybridized. The lone pairs repel a bit more than the protons do, squeezing the bond angle a little bit below 109.5, to like 104.

But yes it’s always flexing and such at room temperature. Also, the protons are constantly exchanging, so any one distinct water molecule has a pretty short “lifetime.”

2