The experiment conducted enabled us to visualize the concepts of atomic and molecular orbitals, and

abstract spatial relationships using cartolina-toothpick models of methane, ethane and cyclohexane.

Table 1 presents the covalent radii of carbon and hydrogen, the elements involved in the three (3)
organic compounds, in angstroms. In order to be able to draw out the atoms in a cartolina, utilization of
the scale 0.1 Å = 0.5 cm was used to convert them to centimeters. Thus, the radius of carbon is 3.9 cm
and hydrogen is 1.5 cm.

Table 2 reports the Van der Waals radii of both carbon and hydrogen and were converted from
angstroms to centimeters using the scale 0.1 Å = 0.5 cm. Resulting to radii of hydrogen to be 6 cm and
for carbon to be 8.5 cm.

The distances of bonded atoms are shown in Table 3. In the C-C bond, the sum of two covalent radii of
carbon atoms is subtracted to the sum of Van der Waals radii of two carbon atoms as well to achieve the
result of 4.7 cm. For the C-H bond, the sum of carbon and hydrogen covalent radii is subtracted to the
total of Van der Waals radii of hydrogen and carbon atoms. 4.6 cm was the calculated distance of the C-H
bond.

The results shows how the covalent radius and Van der Waals radius are connected through their
similarities and differences. Having to create a large-scale model of the following molecules shows how
close or far apart bonded atoms are with each other.