"No lone pairs to hide," Sulfur said. "What you see is what you get."
But here was the twist. Because the ion had a ( 2- ) charge, the Oxygens were slightly jealous—they wanted even more negative attention. So they began to delocalize . The double bonds started switching places so fast that, if you looked at the molecule, every bond looked identical: 1.5 bonds (a resonance hybrid). so4 2 electron geometry and molecular geometry
"Since all four electron regions contain atoms," declared the Molecular Geometry, "your visible shape is... ." "No lone pairs to hide," Sulfur said
But then came the . The Molecular Geometry is the visible shape—the actual arrangement of atoms , ignoring whether the clouds are bonds or lone pairs. Sulfur looked at his hands. He had no leftover lone pairs. Every region of electrons was used to hold an Oxygen atom. So they began to delocalize
Sulfur made a decision. He would use his d-orbital expansion. He promoted one of his 3s electrons to a higher energy level, creating six unpaired electrons. Then, he borrowed two extra electrons from the universe (giving the ion its ( 2- ) charge). Now, with eight electrons to allocate, he invited the four Oxygens to bond.
Sulfur nodded. He arranged his four double bonds like the corners of a pyramid.