We're going to say dipole moment is the polarity that arises when elements in a bond have a significant difference in their electronegativities. Now polarity itself is the unequal sharing of electrons between bonding atoms and we're going to say a difference in electronegativity greater than 0.4 is considered significant. Now difference in electronegativity, abbreviated as ΔEN, equals the larger or higher electronegativity value minus the smaller or lower electronegativity value.

We're going to say the dipole. The dipole moment is illustrated by dipole arrow that points towards the more electronegative value or element. So here we have carbon and we have fluorine. If we look at this example, it says calculate the difference in electronegativities values between carbon and fluorine. While carbon has an electronegativity value of 2.5 and fluorine is 4.0, so ΔEN equals the larger value of 4.0 minus a smaller value of 2.5. So their difference would be 1.5 which would give us option D.

The fact that the electronegativity negativity value is greater than 0.4 means that this bond is a polar bond and therefore would have a dipole moment. And a dipole moment means we have to use this dipole arrow. So that's how things are connected together. So if you're ever looking between two elements and you're trying to determine if the bond is polar and therefore has a dipole moment, you look at their difference in electronegativity. One greater than 0.4 would mean that bond is polar and requires a dipole moment arrow.

So again, because fluorine is more electronegative, the arrow would point towards it. Carbon is more is less electronegative, more electropositive. So if you think about it, this end here kind of looks like a positive sign if you were to circle it, and that's why it's on near carbon O. I'll just keep this in mind when looking at the chemical bond between two elements to determine if it has a dipole moment or not.