If the electrons repulse each other, then why do you show them moving to the same side of the oxygen atom? I don't think you can explain this concept without looking at it as a tetrahedral.
Such a good question! Yes, naturally they would repel each other since negative repel negative. There are two factors involved here that can explain why it's possible for the electrons to pair up. First, electrons travel in wave functions rather than as particles, their energy levels restrict them to particular regions in space that force them to pair up. Secondly, if the attraction of the protons is larger than the repulsion of the electrons, then they are pulled together. They occupy the same space when bonded in close proximity to each other.
Electrons are all negatively charged. Like two south sides of magnets, like charges repel each other. They are attracted to the positively-charged protons in the nucleus, and rely on energy to orbit the nucleus rather than just “fall in.” It takes more energy to be farther away from the nucleus, so generally electrons are as close as practical. This attraction and repulsion combination means that electrons generally stay as far away from each other as they can, so long as they still have the energy to be in those places. Have you covered electron cconfiguration yet? If not, look it up if you are confused. Oxygen is very electronegative - it wants to gain electrons to have a negative charge. This is because it only needs 2 electrons to have an electron configuration which resembles a noble gas, neon, which is more stable (less able to be changed) than a neutral oxygen atom. Hydrogen prefers to give up an electron, to just have a nucleus without electrons around it. As a result, each hydrogen in water (H2O) gives an electron to the oxygen atom, meaning each hydrogen atom has 0 electrons, and the oxygen atoms has (6 initial + 2 from hydrogens =) 8 electrons in it's valence (outermost) level of electrons. Electrons tend to pair up into “up” and “down” electrons because of some quantum chemistry called the Schrödinger Equation. These pairs occupy different levels (rows), orbitals (s, p, d, f, etc), and sub-orbitals (p1/2, for example) which provide unique solutions to the Schrödinger Equation. It turns out that the valence level of oxygen has room for 4 pairs of electrons in the s and p orbitals - and this is the key. If you have a flat piece of paper, and I asked you to draw four lines from a point so that the lines were as far apart from each other as possible, what would the angle between the points be? Now imagine in 3D I asked you to do the same thing. It wouldn't be the same (spoiler:) 90 degrees, because that would just be in a single plane - you can separate them further by moving them around and creating a tetrahedron (a triangle-bottomed pyramid). What are the angles of a tetrahedron? A 180° water would only have the lone pairs around the “belt” of the oxygen - 90 degrees away from the hydrogens, and therefore less separated than a tetrahedron. As one of the other authors aluded, it isn't a perfect tetrahedron. That's because you have two different things around the oxygen - lone pairs of electrons and hydrogen atoms take up different spaces and have different repulsions. By contrast, the tetrahedral methane (CH4) with perfect tetrahedral symmetry does perfectly match the angles of a tetrahedron.
This videos is intended for high school general chemistry level. The 2d animation cannot fully explain how electrons are placed around an atom in a 3d space. The video illustrates the following point - A water molecule is made of 1 oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms. The bonds are covalent, it means the electrons are shared. However, oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen, it attracts the electrons closer to itself. So covalent bonds are formed, the electrons are shared but just not equally. This causes a polarity to form - a slightly negative charge around the oxygen atom where the electrons hang out more often and positive charge around the hydrogen atom. The bent shape is due to the pair of lone electrons repulsing each other and pushing the hydrogen atoms closer to each other. That's all the video is meant to illustrate for those who are completely new to this concept.
Electrons are all negatively charged. Like two south sides of magnets, like charges repel each other. They are attracted to the positively-charged protons in the nucleus, and rely on energy to orbit the nucleus rather than just “fall in.” It takes more energy to be farther away from the nucleus, so generally electrons are as close as practical. This attraction and repulsion combination means that electrons generally stay as far away from each other as they can, so long as they still have the energy to be in those places. Have you covered electron cconfiguration yet? If not, look it up if you are confused. Oxygen is very electronegative - it wants to gain electrons to have a negative charge. This is because it only needs 2 electrons to have an electron configuration which resembles a noble gas, neon, which is more stable (less able to be changed) than a neutral oxygen atom. Hydrogen prefers to give up an electron, to just have a nucleus without electrons around it. As a result, each hydrogen in water (H2O) gives an electron to the oxygen atom, meaning each hydrogen atom has 0 electrons, and the oxygen atoms has (6 initial + 2 from hydrogens =) 8 electrons in it's valence (outermost) level of electrons. Electrons tend to pair up into “up” and “down” electrons because of some quantum chemistry called the Schrödinger Equation. These pairs occupy different levels (rows), orbitals (s, p, d, f, etc), and sub-orbitals (p1/2, for example) which provide unique solutions to the Schrödinger Equation. It turns out that the valence level of oxygen has room for 4 pairs of electrons in the s and p orbitals - and this is the key. If you have a flat piece of paper, and I asked you to draw four lines from a point so that the lines were as far apart from each other as possible, what would the angle between the points be? Now imagine in 3D I asked you to do the same thing. It wouldn't be the same (spoiler:) 90 degrees, because that would just be in a single plane - you can separate them further by moving them around and creating a tetrahedron (a triangle-bottomed pyramid). What are the angles of a tetrahedron? A 180° water would only have the lone pairs around the “belt” of the oxygen - 90 degrees away from the hydrogens, and therefore less separated than a tetrahedron. As one of the other authors aluded, it isn't a perfect tetrahedron. That's because you have two different things around the oxygen - lone pairs of electrons and hydrogen atoms take up different spaces and have different repulsions. By contrast, the tetrahedral methane (CH4) with perfect tetrahedral symmetry does perfectly match the angles of a tetrahedron.
Water is a molecule and not an ionic compound. The hydrogen atom does not give up it's electron to oxygen. In this case, the electronegativity difference does not strip hydrogen off its electron, so I'm not really understanding your part in saying that hydrogen gives up an electron. In some of the higher chemistry videos we show the difference between molecular shape and electron geometry. It's not practical to incorporate all concepts into one short simple video which will be very confusing for the basic level.
If the electrons repulse each other, then why do you show them moving to the same side of the oxygen atom? I don't think you can explain this concept without looking at it as a tetrahedral.
Such a good question! Yes, naturally they would repel each other since negative repel negative. There are two factors involved here that can explain why it's possible for the electrons to pair up. First, electrons travel in wave functions rather than as particles, their energy levels restrict them to particular regions in space that force them to pair up. Secondly, if the attraction of the protons is larger than the repulsion of the electrons, then they are pulled together. They occupy the same space when bonded in close proximity to each other.
Did you ever find a good explanation? None of these videos actually explain why.
Electrons are all negatively charged. Like two south sides of magnets, like charges repel each other. They are attracted to the positively-charged protons in the nucleus, and rely on energy to orbit the nucleus rather than just “fall in.” It takes more energy to be farther away from the nucleus, so generally electrons are as close as practical. This attraction and repulsion combination means that electrons generally stay as far away from each other as they can, so long as they still have the energy to be in those places.
Have you covered electron cconfiguration yet? If not, look it up if you are confused. Oxygen is very electronegative - it wants to gain electrons to have a negative charge. This is because it only needs 2 electrons to have an electron configuration which resembles a noble gas, neon, which is more stable (less able to be changed) than a neutral oxygen atom. Hydrogen prefers to give up an electron, to just have a nucleus without electrons around it. As a result, each hydrogen in water (H2O) gives an electron to the oxygen atom, meaning each hydrogen atom has 0 electrons, and the oxygen atoms has (6 initial + 2 from hydrogens =) 8 electrons in it's valence (outermost) level of electrons.
Electrons tend to pair up into “up” and “down” electrons because of some quantum chemistry called the Schrödinger Equation. These pairs occupy different levels (rows), orbitals (s, p, d, f, etc), and sub-orbitals (p1/2, for example) which provide unique solutions to the Schrödinger Equation. It turns out that the valence level of oxygen has room for 4 pairs of electrons in the s and p orbitals - and this is the key.
If you have a flat piece of paper, and I asked you to draw four lines from a point so that the lines were as far apart from each other as possible, what would the angle between the points be?
Now imagine in 3D I asked you to do the same thing. It wouldn't be the same (spoiler:) 90 degrees, because that would just be in a single plane - you can separate them further by moving them around and creating a tetrahedron (a triangle-bottomed pyramid). What are the angles of a tetrahedron? A 180° water would only have the lone pairs around the “belt” of the oxygen - 90 degrees away from the hydrogens, and therefore less separated than a tetrahedron.
As one of the other authors aluded, it isn't a perfect tetrahedron. That's because you have two different things around the oxygen - lone pairs of electrons and hydrogen atoms take up different spaces and have different repulsions. By contrast, the tetrahedral methane (CH4) with perfect tetrahedral symmetry does perfectly match the angles of a tetrahedron.
This videos is intended for high school general chemistry level. The 2d animation cannot fully explain how electrons are placed around an atom in a 3d space. The video illustrates the following point -
A water molecule is made of 1 oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms. The bonds are covalent, it means the electrons are shared.
However, oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen, it attracts the electrons closer to itself.
So covalent bonds are formed, the electrons are shared but just not equally.
This causes a polarity to form - a slightly negative charge around the oxygen atom where the electrons hang out more often and positive charge around the hydrogen atom.
The bent shape is due to the pair of lone electrons repulsing each other and pushing the hydrogen atoms closer to each other.
That's all the video is meant to illustrate for those who are completely new to this concept.
Electrons are all negatively charged. Like two south sides of magnets, like charges repel each other. They are attracted to the positively-charged protons in the nucleus, and rely on energy to orbit the nucleus rather than just “fall in.” It takes more energy to be farther away from the nucleus, so generally electrons are as close as practical. This attraction and repulsion combination means that electrons generally stay as far away from each other as they can, so long as they still have the energy to be in those places.
Have you covered electron cconfiguration yet? If not, look it up if you are confused. Oxygen is very electronegative - it wants to gain electrons to have a negative charge. This is because it only needs 2 electrons to have an electron configuration which resembles a noble gas, neon, which is more stable (less able to be changed) than a neutral oxygen atom. Hydrogen prefers to give up an electron, to just have a nucleus without electrons around it. As a result, each hydrogen in water (H2O) gives an electron to the oxygen atom, meaning each hydrogen atom has 0 electrons, and the oxygen atoms has (6 initial + 2 from hydrogens =) 8 electrons in it's valence (outermost) level of electrons.
Electrons tend to pair up into “up” and “down” electrons because of some quantum chemistry called the Schrödinger Equation. These pairs occupy different levels (rows), orbitals (s, p, d, f, etc), and sub-orbitals (p1/2, for example) which provide unique solutions to the Schrödinger Equation. It turns out that the valence level of oxygen has room for 4 pairs of electrons in the s and p orbitals - and this is the key.
If you have a flat piece of paper, and I asked you to draw four lines from a point so that the lines were as far apart from each other as possible, what would the angle between the points be?
Now imagine in 3D I asked you to do the same thing. It wouldn't be the same (spoiler:) 90 degrees, because that would just be in a single plane - you can separate them further by moving them around and creating a tetrahedron (a triangle-bottomed pyramid). What are the angles of a tetrahedron? A 180° water would only have the lone pairs around the “belt” of the oxygen - 90 degrees away from the hydrogens, and therefore less separated than a tetrahedron.
As one of the other authors aluded, it isn't a perfect tetrahedron. That's because you have two different things around the oxygen - lone pairs of electrons and hydrogen atoms take up different spaces and have different repulsions. By contrast, the tetrahedral methane (CH4) with perfect tetrahedral symmetry does perfectly match the angles of a tetrahedron.
Water is a molecule and not an ionic compound. The hydrogen atom does not give up it's electron to oxygen. In this case, the electronegativity difference does not strip hydrogen off its electron, so I'm not really understanding your part in saying that hydrogen gives up an electron. In some of the higher chemistry videos we show the difference between molecular shape and electron geometry. It's not practical to incorporate all concepts into one short simple video which will be very confusing for the basic level.