Parameters of covalent bond

Having established two competing theories of covalent bonding (valence bond theory and molecular orbital theory), this section turns to four measurable PARAMETERS that together characterise any covalent bond quantitatively, regardless of which theory is used to explain it: bond angle (the angle subtended at a central atom by two of its bonds), bond enthalpy (the energy needed to break the bond), bond length (the equilibrium internuclear distance), and bond order (how many bonding electron pairs, net of antibonding, link the two atoms). Together these four parameters let a bond's relative strength, its molecule's overall shape, and its stability all be compared direc …