What is the shape of a water molecule?

1 Answer
Apr 29, 2016

Bent.

Explanation:

The central oxygen atom has 2 non-bonding pairs of electrons, and 2 pairs of shared bonding electrons, each to a hydrogen atom. The arrangement of the electron pairs around the central oxygen is tetrahedral, with the non-bonding pairs taking up slightly more space than the bonding pairs, but since we don't "see" the the electrons but only the atoms, the molecule looks "bent".