Dipole arrows

[Dexter Shen 2G]

Hello! What do the point of dipole arrows if they always point to the delta negative? Can we not assume the dipole direction just from that? Or is there a specific benefit to it?

[906448018]

Hello, good question! So basically Dipole arrows are vectors, so they have both direction (pointing towards the more electronegative atom) and magnitude (depending on how strong the electronegativity is). And the "net" dipole arrow would be an average of the two (or more) including the direction, which is why the overall dipole arrow is different than the directions of the individual atoms. And I suppose we can "assume" the direction like you said, but in some molecules the electronegativity of the atoms might be stronger or weaker comparatively, so the average two or more atoms' dipole vectors could differ to your assumption.