What you thought you already knew about the bending motion of triatomic molecules

The bending vibrations of linear, quasilinear, and bent molecules are qualitatively different phenomena. Each of these cases has been fully described by quantum mechanical formulations in the last half century, but important two-dimensional aspects of all three cases as well as the relationship between the three types of bending behavior remain difficult to visualize. Simple two-dimensional figures can help to provide an introduction to basic spatial and mathematical aspects of the bending problem.