Final answer:
Equivalent hydrogens do not cause splitting in NMR because they share the same magnetic environment, thus they do not affect each other's nuclear spin states, resulting in a single peak for that group of hydrogens.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the splitting of NMR signals occurs due to the magnetic interactions between non-equivalent hydrogen atoms. Equivalent hydrogens have the same magnetic environment and thus do not cause splitting in each other's NMR signals. Splitting in NMR refers to the phenomenon where a set of nuclear spin states of one hydrogen atom is affected by the adjacent, non-equivalent hydrogen atoms. Each non-equivalent hydrogen with a spin state can influence neighboring spins, leading to a multiplicity in the resultant NMR peak based on the n + 1 rule, where n is the number of adjacent non-equivalent hydrogens. However, when hydrogens are equivalent, they "see" the same electronic environment and do not split each other's signals, resulting in a single peak for that group of hydrogens.