ABSTRACT
Cyclohexane and other hydrocarbons have virtually no permanent electrical charge asymmetry. Their electrons are in constant motion, however, and for extremely short time periods there may result slight charge asymmetries. The weak, short-lived dipoles are called transient dipoles and two of them can attract one another. That attraction is called a transient dipole-transient dipole attraction. In addition, one transient dipole can induce a transient dipole in another molecule and then be attracted to it. These transient dipole-transient dipole and transient dipole-induced transient dipole attractions are collectively called van der Waals' interactions. Their transience makes them very weak – perhaps of the order of 10-2 eV – but in the absence of the strong attractions associated with permanent monopoles and dipoles, they are the only attractive forces available for keeping the hydrocarbon in the liquid phase – if indeed it is a liquid.
