Question

What is a consequence of electron pair repulsion around an atom?

Answer 1

Stabilization!

Coloumb's law dictates that opposite charges attract, and conversely, similar charges repel.

As a result, consider a carbon atom for instance, with four hydrogen atoms covalently bonded. The electrons in each sigma bond formed with hybridized `"C"-"sp"^3` and `"H"-"1s"` orbitals maximize the distance between them,

Something I watched awhile ago (maybe Crash Course) was considering tying inflated balloons together. They will always maximize the space between them when tied together.