I was just wondering is there a general formula to work out bond angles?

What are all the major components that determine bond angles? and bond lenghts?

Cheers

This site is good, but the navigation is a bit cumbersome because it's still being added to.

 

http://www.chem.ufl.edu/~chm2040/Notes/Chapter_12/valence.html

I love it. I want to have some basic idea of bonding in quantum mechanics after learning the electron configuration of element in quantum.

Question of bond angles

 

The question of the bond angle of molecules can be answered by the VSEPR- theory. VSEPR stands for Valence Shale Electron Pair Repulsion. It is based on the fact, that free electron pairs use up more space than shared electrons. If we look at the molecule of ammoniac it has therefore a taetraedric form. The free electron pair of the nitrogen consums the same amount of space like a whole bond with the hydrogen atoms.

The exact grade number we get from the geometry of three dimensional figures, like cube, taetraeder and so forth.

there is no general formula to my knowledge, just trends. check lange's handbook for bonding information; that's what i use.

VSEPR-valence shell electron pair repulsion.

oy, lone pairs change everything