Dipole moments

[Johnathan Smith 1D]

Can someone explain what dipole moments are?

[Matthew Chan 1B]

Dipole moments arise from differences in electronegativity in a covalent bond between two atoms. The arrow of the dipole moment is generally pointed towards the element that is more electronegative. They represent the direction in which the electrons are pulled toward, given the differences in electronegativity. Hope this helps!

[Lara Kristine Bacasen 1L]

To add on, how I understand it is that one atom is more greedy than the other. One of the atoms needs the electron more than the other and this causes it to pull the electron closer to itself and farther from the other atom it is getting the electron from. This induces a partial charge, a negative charge towards the one that is greedy and a positive towards the one being stolen from.

[Cynthia Gong 1L]

^^ Building upon what they said, dipole moments occur because electrons are pulled towards the more electronegative side of the bond, so one side becomes more negatively charged while the other side becomes more positively charged

[Chetas Holagunda 3H]

Also, as the difference in electronegativity increases, the magnitude of the partial charges also increase, affecting the dipole moment.

[Kaitlyn Ang 1J]

And when molecules with dipole moments are around other molecules with dipole moments, they can automatically arrange themselves so that their opposite dipoles are closer to each other (induced-dipoles) which is a type of attractive force that explains some of the patterns of how molecules arrange themselves when around other molecules.