I believe the polarity is as follows:

Water> Acetic Acid> Butanol> Acetone

The acetic acid being more polar than butanol because of the carboxylic acid functional group. Butanol being more polar than acetone because of the alcohol group. Water being most polar because it contains no carbons (non-polar molecules)

 

This was a question for our lab students. Our lab supervisor wrote it up, and here is what he said about it:

"Just give the students points for making any sort of reasonable attempt. 1) the students really aren't necessarily equipped to answer that question and 2) evidently there can be more than one right answer depending on the criteria you choose to determine polarity.

It was a bad question, not bad enough to just throw out (although I will not use it again in the future) but bad enough that the answer is not straightforward and therefore as long as they gave what looks like a reasonable trend (ie,butanol before water, for example) just give them the points."



I guess in reality this is a pretty hard question. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure it out, and there are some differences in answers here on the board. Sorry, but thanks for helping out!

 

Hey, crack open your textbook...

 

 

LOL

 

That has to do with the electronic pull of the atom. N, F and O have more electrons that polarise stronger than say H or Na etc.

 

You are being way to hard on yourself. We all had to learn this from scratch, like most people.

 

Noble = inert

What is the point of including them when they are complete atoms, most atoms are incomplete hence why the form some sort of bonding. In the general sense, however there are exceptions when it comes to noble atoms.

 

Holy moly!! Chemistry! This brings back some memories.