Draw a diagram to show the shape of Chloromethane and explain why it has this shape. [closed]








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[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tKQAD.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tKQAD.jpg)


I know it has this shape, but I don't know how to explain it. Any help is appreciated, thanks. 




Carbon has in his outer shell 4 electrons and needs 4 more electrons to get the full shell like the noble gas **Ne**.


[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PvtZbm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PvtZbm.jpg)


Chlorine has in his outer shell 7 electrons and needs one electron to get the full shell like the noble gas **Ar**. 


I give you an answer because the question about the tetrahedral structure of Chloromethane contradicts the perceptions of physics about a s- orbital with 2 electrons and 3 p-orbitals with 2 electrons in each p-orbital. To avoid the contradiction between the claimed s- and p-orbitals and the empirical founded tetrahedral structure the [sp-hybridizations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_hybridisation) were postulated. The carbon in Chloromethane has four sp3-hybridizations with all atoms around.


If you have a look around you will see that the hybridizations are the norm. Let the s- and p-orbitals be a toy for physicists.


What you have to check is, always to get pairs of electrons. That electrons like to be pairwise was expressed by the [Pauli exclusion principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle). It is a principle and not an explanation why this happens this way in atoms. But if you need an imagination of how the electrons form pairs *you* could think *for yourself* of the electrons as tiny bar magnets (they indeed have a [magnetic dipole moment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron#Fundamental_properties)) and two of them form a magnetic pair. This pairs around the carbon will be in some equilibration to each other. Since chlorine has a lot of other electron pairs it pushes the 3 hydrogen atoms. So you get this shape:


[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WVJGxm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WVJGxm.jpg)


All images from Wikipedia


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