Non bonded pairs have a higher force of repulsion than bonded pairs, as the bonded pairs also feel the pull of another positive nucleus. The shape of a molecule is distorted. 2 example - NH3 (one lone pair) & H2O (2 lone pairs). NH3 is trigonal pyramidal while H2O is bent.
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The shape of a molecule only describes the arrangement of bonds around a central atom. The arrangement of electron pairs describes how both the bonding and nonbonding electron pair are arranged. For example, in its molecular shape, a water molecule is describes as bent, with two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. However, the arrangement of electron pairs around the oxygen atom is tetrahedral as there are two bonding pairs (shared with the hydrogen) and also two nonbonding pairs.
Lone electron pairs give the geometry a triangular base.
Repulsion of the unshared electron pairs (2)and the bonded pairs (2) around the central oxygen atom. Repulsion of these 4 electron pairs attempts to form a tetrahedral shape. Describing the molecular shape, we ignore the unshared electrons and just describe the shape of the molecule based on the location of the atoms, thus bent.
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