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  4. Give reasons for: '' Carbon-oxygen bond lengths in formic acid are 1.23 mathringA and 1.36 mathringA and both the carbon-oxygen bonds in sodium formate have the same value .i.e. 1.27 mathringA''

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Q. Give reasons for:
'' Carbon-oxygen bond lengths in formic acid are $1.23\,\mathring{A}$ and $ 1.36\,\mathring{A}$ and both the carbon-oxygen bonds in sodium formate have the same value .i.e. $1.27\,\mathring{A}$''

IIT JEEIIT JEE 1988Aldehydes Ketones and Carboxylic Acids

Solution:

Both formic acid and sodium formate exhibit the phenomenon of resonance as :
image
In formic acid, the extent of delocalisation is less compared to sodium formate because of charge separation in the former case. Due to this reason, the bond length between carbon and $s p^{3}$ oxygen in formic acid is slightly greater than the same between carbon and $s p^{2}$ oxygen. In formate ion, there is no separation of charge and both the resonance structures are equivalent giving equal bond length of both carbon oxygen bonds.