Response to the following problem:
A somewhat inaccurate, but geometrically convenient way of visualizing carbon bonding is to consider the carbon nucleus at the center of a tetrahedron with four valence electron clouds extending to corners of the tetrahedron. In this scheme, a carbon-carbon single bond represents tetrahedra joined tipto- tip, a double bond represents tetrahedra joined edge-to-edge, and a triple bond represents tetrahedra joined face-to-face. Calculate the expected ratio of single, double, and triple bond lengths according to this geometrical interpretation and compare with the measured bond lengths shown below. Comment on your results.
Bond Type Bond Length(nm)
C-C single bond 0.154
C-C double bond 0.134
C-C triple bond 0.120