molecular geometry
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3D shape of a molecule, defined by the positions of its constituent atoms
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Geometry of the water molecule with values for O-H bond length and for H-O-H bond angle between two bonds Molecular geometry is the three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms that constitute a molecule. It includes the general shape of the molecule as well as bond lengths, bond angles, torsional angles and any other geometrical parameters that determine the position of each atom.
Molecular geometry influences several properties of a substance including its reactivity, polarity, phase of matter, color, magnetism and biological activity. The angles between bonds that an atom forms depend only weakly on the rest of a molecule, i.e. they can be understood as approximately local and hence transferable properties.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “molecular geometry” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.