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Lesson: Chapter 10 — Chemical Bonds

10.3. Polarity of bonds 7 of 8

Question 7

Why is a water molecule polar overall?

The right answer is the one marked above.

Oxygen pulls the bonding pairs towards itself, and the bent shape stops the two ends cancelling. Both parts matter: the electronegativity difference creates the partial charges, and the angular shape leaves them on opposite sides of the molecule.

No electron has been transferred, so there are no ions and no full charges — the hydrogens keep their electrons, merely sharing them unevenly. The bonds in water are covalent.

Answer the question to continue.