What makes water a polar molecule?
Water has a partial negative (𝛿-) charge on one side and a partial positive (𝛿 +) charge on the other. These partial charges arise as water (H20) is composed of one atom of oxygen (O) joined to two atoms of hydrogen (H2) by shared electrons aka covalent bonding; the shared negative hydrogen electrons are pulled towards the oxygen atom, which is more electronegative than hydrogen, so the other side of each hydrogen atom is left with a slight positive charge. The unshared negative electrons on the oxygen atom give it a slight negative charge. [Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons, and oxygen is better than hydrogen at attracting electrons, because it has more positively charged protons in its nucleus]
