Sulphurous Acid

[Delta5]

Can someone help me with my homwork that my Chemistry teacher set me? I know the formula of Sulphurous acid which is H2SO3, but I need to know exactly the structure of Sulphurous acid and its individual bondings between the hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen atoms.

 

I would really appreciate it if someone can help me with this.

[John Cuthber]

Do you know about valency?

The sulphur is 4 valennt, the oxyges are 2 valent and the hydrogens just 1.

Generally oxygens don't form chains (in this molecule they do't)

There is, I think, only one possible structure.

[thedarkshade]

The image below might help

 

[insane_alien]

darkshade, the whole point of the homework help guide is to point them in the right direction rather than give them the answer.

[Delta5]

But after checking and double checking, if the model that darkshade gave me was right, wouldnt sulphur has an extra two electrons?where would these two electons go since the third shell of sulphur can only hold up to 8 electrons?

[insane_alien]

well, its a kind of resonance structure a bit like with benzene. and the orbitals can hybridize so the 8 electron rule doesn't hold.