Final answer:
In water, the tetrahedral geometry is distorted due to the presence of two pairs of non-bonding electrons, resulting in a bent shape with a H-O-H angle of 104.5°.
Step-by-step explanation:
In water, each hydrogen nucleus is covalently bound to the central oxygen atom by a pair of electrons that are shared between them.
In H₂O, only two of the six outer-shell electrons of oxygen are used for this purpose, leaving four electrons which are organized into two non-bonding pairs.
The four electron pairs surrounding the oxygen tend to arrange themselves as far from each other as possible in order to minimize repulsions between these clouds of negative charge.
This would ordinarily result in a tetrahedral geometry in which the angle between electron pairs (and therefore the H-O-H bond angle) is 109.5°.
However, because the two non-bonding pairs remain closer to the oxygen atom, these exert a stronger repulsion against the two covalent bonding pairs, effectively pushing the two hydrogen atoms closer together.
The result is a distorted tetrahedral arrangement in which the H -O-H angle is 104.5°.