Dipole Moment

[Diondraya_Taylor_1C]

I'm a little confused. What exactly does it mean for a molecule to have a dipole moment? That the elements have formal charges other than 0?

[Jamie_Lin_3I]

Typically when the two atoms involved in bonding are different atoms, they have different electronegativity. With different electronegativity, the atom with the higher electronegativity would pull on the electrons in the covalent bond more as it "wants" the electrons more. Thus, bonded atoms of two different elements will have a dipole moment because of their difference in electronegativities.
Let's say we have H-Cl
Since Chlorine is on the upper right of the periodic table, it has a high electronegativity and will pull on the electrons of the covalent bond more. This gives a dipole moment with Cl with partially negative charge and H with partially positive charge. You could think of it as expecting the electrons to hang around Cl more because Cl wants the electrons more; hence, the partially negative charge.

[Arianna Brooks 4A]

Dipole moments tell us about the charge separation in a molecule. The larger the difference in electronegativities of bonded atoms, the larger the dipole moment. For example, NaCl has the highest dipole moment because it has an ionic bond (i.e. highest charge separation).
When atoms in a molecule share electrons unequally, they create a dipole moment.

[Diondraya_Taylor_1C]

Oh okay, that helps. Thank you!