water

[miriam_e]

Does anybody here know why the water molecule resembles Mickey Mouse? That is, why do the two hydrogen atoms stick onto the oxygen atom at 120° instead the apparently more obvious 180°. This has puzzled me since I was very young and I've never heard a good explanation of it. I've heard people say it is to do with the shapes of electron orbitals, but then usually dismissed as too complex to explain, which always sounds suspiciously like "I don't understand it myself so I won't reveal my ignorance to you". In my experience most concepts have fairly simple ideas at their heart. The trick is in finding the way to convey that.

Comments

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the subject myself either, but it will have something to do with the way the electron shell on the oxygen atom is organized.

And it'll be the same reason the ozone molecule is shaped as it is too.