Dipole moment definition/calculation [ENDORSED]

[Joanna Huang]

Can someone explain what a dipole moment is, and what it depends on? I know a dipole dipole attraction depends on the polarity of the atom (the electronegativity). What's the difference between this and a dipole moment? And will we ever need to calculate this?

[Chem_Mod]

The full name is the electric field dipole moment and it is the electric field created by the asymmetry in charge.

Dipole moment = q x d where d is the distance between the charges (partial charges)

The larger the asymmetry in charge, the bigger the dipole moment.
The larger the distance between the charges, the bigger the dipole moment.

As you can see from the homework I assigned, and class examples, we are not calculating dipole moments in Chem 14A.

[Simrah_Ahmed1J]

The dipole moment describes the relationship between two different charges in space because like we learned they make an electric field. Whereas electronegativity is a measurement of how reactive an atom is, or how likely it is to bond with another atom, or how likely it is to attract a shared pair of electrons. So electronegativity can be used to fine the dipole moment.
To find the actual strength and measured value of the dipole moment you also need the distance, but to simply find the negative end of the bond, its pointed towards the atom of greater electronegativity and the positive end of the bond is pointed towards the atom of less electronegativity. You can find individual dipole moments between atoms and net dipole moments for entire molecules.

[Linette Choi 3L]

The full name is the electric field dipole moment and it is the electric field created by the asymmetry in charge.

Dipole moment = q x d where d is the distance between the charges (partial charges)

The larger the asymmetry in charge, the bigger the dipole moment.
The larger the distance between the charges, the bigger the dipole moment.

As you can see from the homework I assigned, and class examples, we are not calculating dipole moments in Chem 14A.

Can someone help explain what it means by larger asymmetry in charge? I'm a bit confused on what this means.