Dipole Moments Cancel in Tetrahedral?

[Sydney Myers 4I]

Would two dipole moments cancel if they are on opposite sides of a tetrahedral molecule? Because they're not exactly in line with each other!

[Jessica Booth 2F]

No, they would not cancel. The only way to have a nonpolar tetrahedral molecule is if all the atoms attached to the central atom are the same.

[Justin Quan 4I]

To add on, dipole moments would only cancel if all the surrounding atoms are the same, ex: CH4 is non polar.

[Brittney Hun 2C]

The tetrahedral shape is never non-polar unless all elements surrounding the central atom are identical. It's easies to see the 3-D shape, and how they would not be able to cancel out.

[Diana_Diep2I]

If you draw the tetrahedral lewis structure in its actual shape, you would see that they would not cancel due to the vectors pointing upwards or downwards. The structure does not have bond angles of 90º. There would be a net dipole going up or down. For example, CH2Cl2 would still be polar and like the posts above me said, the only time a tetrahedral molecule is nonpolar is when all four atoms attached to the central atom are the same, like CCl4.

[HuyHa_2H]

If you draw out the proper shape, then obviously the molecule will be polar because of dipoles that aren't canceling each other out. So, it's only if the molecules are the same where the dipoles would cancel each other out.