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It consists of a slightly negative oxygen atom and 2 slightly positive hydrogen atoms

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Laurence Aufderhar

Lvl 13
2y ago
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11y ago

This is because the oxygen atom in the covalent bonding has a higher electronegative value on the pualing scale. This means that is has a stronger pull on the electrons. So instead of the electrons being shared evenly between the Hydrogen and the Oxygen atoms, the Oxygen atom has a greater share of the electrons. This means that the Oxygen atom becomes slightly negatively charged due to it having more of the electrons and the Hydrogen atoms become slightly positively charged as they have less of the electrons.

They that this is expressed is that the Oxygen is delta negative (this just means slightly negative but not completely like atoms in ionic bonding) and the Hydrogen atoms are delta postive ( once again meaning slightly positive but not like atoms in ionic bonding where there is a complete transfer of electrons).

Look up polar water molecule on Google images and the weird looking d+ and d- is just the symbol of delta plus and delta negative. I hope this helps

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Wiki User

12y ago

Water is polar because it is a covalent molecule.

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13y ago

Water is called a polar molecule because of the three atoms in a water molecule are not arranged in a straight line as you might expect.

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7y ago

Water, H2O, is a polar molecule because the oxygen is more electronegative than the hydrogens, and so you have a net negative charge on the O, and an net positive charge on each H.

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Q: Why is water referred to as a polar molecule?
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