What is the angle between two of the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the methane (CH4) molecule
In a methane (CH4) molecule, the carbon atom is at the center, and the four hydrogen atoms are located at the corners of a regular tetrahedron. The geometry is known as tetrahedral, and the angle between any two bonds is the tetrahedral angle.
The angle between any two carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds in methane is approximately 109.5 degrees. This is due to the repulsion between the pairs of electrons in the sp³ hybrid orbitals of the carbon atom that bonds with the hydrogen atoms. The result is that these bonds arrange themselves as far apart as possible within a three-dimensional space, leading to the 109.5-degree bond angle characteristic of a perfect tetrahedral shape.