text: The ground state of methylene has an ionisation energy of 10.396 eV. It has a bent configuration, with H-C-H angle of 133.84°, and is thus paramagnetic. (The correct prediction of this angle was an early success of ab initio quantum chemistry.) However conversion to a linear configuration requires only 5.5 kcal/mol.
  The singlet state has a slightly higher energy (by about 9 kcal/mol) than the triplet state, and its H-C-H angle is smaller, about 102°. In dilute mixtures with an inert gas, the two states will convert to each other until reaching an equilibrium.