What is the bond angle in methylene?

Answer 1

Imagine that you create the tetrahedron by joining opposite vertices on the faces of a cube as in the diagram below. To simplify the arithmetic assume that the cube has sides of length 2.

Let O be the point at the center of the cube (equidistant from the eight vertices) as in the diagram below. Construct the triangle OPQ.

Consider the triangle OPQ. Let R be the midpoint of PQ.

Since the sided of the cube are of length 2, a use of Pythagoras' Theorem gives |PQ| = . Also, since O is at the center of the cube, |OR| = 1. From the diagram the tangent of the angle ROP is . Thusangle QOP = 2 x angle ROP = 2 x arctan() = 109.5o

Answer 2

The central atom of a methane molecule is the carbon atom. Four hydrogen atoms are directly bonded to it and there is no lone pairs located in the central atom. Having a tetrahedral shape, every bond angle in methane is equal to 109.5 degrees.

Answer 3

The bond angle of singlet methylene is 120°. This is because it has a steric number of 3 and no lone electron pairs, and thus its molecular geometry is trigonal planar.

Answer 4

arccos(-1/3), which is approximately 109.5 degrees

Answer 5

Methane has a tetrahedral geometry. Thus, the bond angles in methane are all equal to 109o.

Answer 6

since the lewis dot structure of this compound is a tetrahedral (around the C atom that is) and all four electron pairs are bonding pairs, the ideal angles should be 109.5 degrees