Question

What is an example of a polarity of bonds practice problem?

Answer 1

A possible example would be: Is water and `CO_2` non-polar or polar?

To answer this the Lewis Structures should be drawn and from this the molecular geometry can be obtained to then tell you if it is polar or non-polar.

Water has a bent tetrahedral geometry which is four bonding sites (two lone pairs of electrons, two Hydrogen atoms) so therefore the dipole moment of water is greater than zero because of the reason in brackets.

`CO_2` on the other hand has a dipole moment of zero because it's geometry is linear, meaning the two oxygen molecules lie to the left and right of the oxygen, whose pulling forces cancel each other out.

So to conclude a molecule which has a dipole moment of zero is non-polar and a molecule which has a dipole moment greater than zero is polar.

Hope I helped answer your question :)