Carbon dioxide contains two polar carbon to oxygen bonds, yet the whole molecule is nonpolar. Why?

1. Oxygen is more electronegative than carbon, so each bond does carry a dipole moment. 2. A bond dipole is a vector, with both a size and a direction. 3. Carbon dioxide has two regions of electron density on carbon and no lone pairs, so it is linear. 4. In a linear molecule the two oxygen atoms sit on exactly opposite sides of the carbon. 5. The two bond dipoles are equal in size but point in opposite directions. 6. Adding those two vectors gives zero, so the molecule as a whole has no net dipole. 7. Saying the bond moments are zero contradicts the electronegativity difference that creates them. 8. Water shows why a bent shape matters: there the moments do not cancel and the molecule is polar. _Source: OpenStax Chemistry (CC BY 4.0), Chs 7 and 17, section 7.6 Molecular Structure and Polarity_