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What is the angle between the hydrogen atoms in a water molecule?
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water
Water is the most plentiful compound on Earth and is essential to life. Although water molecules are simple in structure (H2O), the physical and chemical properties of water are extraordinarily complicated.
The water molecule is not linear but bent, with the two hydrogen atoms bound to the central oxygen atom at an angle of 104.5°.1
While the oxygen atom's four electron pairs adopt a tetrahedral arrangement—which typically features an angle of 109.5°—the actual bond angle in water is smaller. This occurs because the two lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atom exert greater repulsive force than the bonding pairs, effectively pushing the hydrogen atoms closer together and closing the angle between them.2