Polar or Non-polar?

When bond dipoles cancel

An interactive lesson with 8 steps, about 7 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Net polarity = sum of bond dipoles as arrows.
• Symmetrical shapes with identical bonds are non-polar (CO₂, BF₃, CCl₄, SF₆).
• Lone pairs or mixed substituents usually make a molecule polar.

Steps

1. Adding arrows
2. Water doesn’t cancel
3. Switch on a field
4. Polar bonds, non-polar molecule
5. Swap one atom
6. Make it polar
7. Mirror twins
8. Sort them