Module 2 Intro

Module 2—Chemical Compounds

Lesson Summary

In this lesson you investigated the following essential question:

• How can you determine the polarity of a molecule by using simple structural shapes and charge distribution?

As part of your study you learned to use electronegativities to determine both bond dipoles, and then to consider the shape of molecules to determine their polarity. You predicted the polarity of different substances and performed an experiment to test your predictions.

Lesson Glossary

bond dipole: the charge separation that occurs when the electronegativity difference of two bonded atoms shifts the shared electrons, making one end of the bond partially positive and the other partially negative

nonpolar molecule: a molecule in which the negative (electron) charge is distributed symmetrically among the atoms making up the molecule

polar molecule: a molecule in which the negative charge is not distributed symmetrically among the atoms, resulting in partial positive and negative charges on opposite ends of the molecule