How can you determine the shape of water?

Water consists of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen atom, the atoms oxygen has 6 outer shell electrons, and wach hydrogen donates one, this results in the structure having 8 electrons, meaning 4 pairs. two of these are lone pairs as there are only two bonded atoms, and two are bonding pairs. Due to the lone pairs having a stronger repulsion than the bonding pairs, the molecule takes on a bent shape.

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Answered by JOSHUA M. Chemistry tutor

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