The Geometry of HCL ?

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Mrhyde

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On Dat Destryoer Gen Chem number 42. It asked which molecules where linear ?

But one of the choices was HCl .... I chose that HCl was not linear but rather tetrahedral.

Well HCl is tetrahedral for electron domain geometry , but linear for molecular domain geometry.

How am I supposed to know which domain they want me to answer from , because technically i was right but I was wrong since they wanted the molecular domain answer And they never specified if they wanted me to decide the geometry based on Electron or Molecular ?

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HCl is linear for both cases!
"A diatomic molecule, a molecule composed of only 2 atoms, must always be linear in shape as the centres of the 2 atoms will always be in a straight line."
HCl has two atoms, and if you draw it you can see the only possible structure is linear structure.
 
On Dat Destryoer Gen Chem number 42. It asked which molecules where linear ?

But one of the choices was HCl .... I chose that HCl was not linear but rather tetrahedral.

Well HCl is tetrahedral for electron domain geometry , but linear for molecular domain geometry.

How am I supposed to know which domain they want me to answer from , because technically i was right but I was wrong since they wanted the molecular domain answer And they never specified if they wanted me to decide the geometry based on Electron or Molecular ?

You want to look at the general shape of the whole molecule.
 
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On Dat Destryoer Gen Chem number 42. It asked which molecules where linear ?

But one of the choices was HCl .... I chose that HCl was not linear but rather tetrahedral.

Well HCl is tetrahedral for electron domain geometry , but linear for molecular domain geometry.

How am I supposed to know which domain they want me to answer from , because technically i was right but I was wrong since they wanted the molecular domain answer And they never specified if they wanted me to decide the geometry based on Electron or Molecular ?

For all questions,,,,,,,Shape pertains to MOLECULAR GEOMETRY....... For example.....the shape of H2O, H2S, and H2Se...would be BENT !!!!

Hope this helps.

Dr. Romano
 
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Wait, so usually you look at the center atom to know the shape. So are all molecules with 2 atoms linear. Since H-Cl, Cl has 3 lone pairs and a bond. That's 4 electron domains. Hydrogen has one electron domain. You can't really tell so I assume it's always linear for elements with 2 atoms like carbon monoxide?
 
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