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csulapredental

Full Member
7+ Year Member
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Yoooooo can someone please give me an easy way of telling if somethings polar or non polar. I'm sick of drawing these lewis each time and checking for symmetry and dipole and all that.. i know theres trick.. like if s is a central atom its polar? yea? no? idk. help! 🙁((((
 
As far as I know there aren't really any tricks - you basically draw Lewis structures so much that you end up remembering some things - ex: a lot of questions involve asking if CO2 is polar, you know from experience that its not and therefore wouldn't need the structure. But at least as far as I know you draw the Lewis structures. Try practicing a couple to get your speed up!
 
If it has a lone pair typically it will be polar i.e. H2o the O has lone pair NH3 the N has a lone pair there contains a dipole ...
 
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Best case just draw them out might take more time but worth the points .... anyways drawing the structure may help you to remember which ones are/n't polar
 
when you guys say look at symmetry r
Best case just draw them out might take more time but worth the points .... anyways drawing the structure may help you to remember which ones are/n't polar


when you say look at symettry right.. do you mean just the shape or does it matter whats coming off. like if i have a c with 4 different things coming off the shape is symmetrical i can cut in half but the things on it are all different.. so that means no symmetry?
 
when you guys say look at symmetry r



when you say look at symettry right.. do you mean just the shape or does it matter whats coming off. like if i have a c with 4 different things coming off the shape is symmetrical i can cut in half but the things on it are all different.. so that means no symmetry?
this should explain better than a forum can: