In this video we are going to go over a way that we can quickly distinguish a polar molecule from a nonpolar molecule. Now it's easier if you know what to look for when a molecule is nonpolar and before you find out what to look for when it's polar. The first category of nonpolar molecules are those that are made up of one element.
For example, if you have a monoatomic atom or a diatomic atom, That's completely positive one element, it's nonpolar. Examples include, for example, N2, that's the diatomic molecule, O2, Cl2, F2, H2, these are all nonpolar. And some of the monatomic gases like helium, neon, argon, xenon, the noble gases, those are also nonpolar. The next category to look for is a molecule that contains only carbon and hydrogen. Those molecules are non-pollin.
So for example, methane, your alkanes, ethane, C2H6, ethane, CH2, double bond CH2. These are composed only of carbon and hydrogen.