ABSTRACT
Carbon dioxide is a compound, a molecule containing more than one kind of atom. It consists of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. The second most common carbon—oxygen compound is the infamous toxic gas, carbon monoxide, with one carbon and one oxygen. A molecule such as carbon dioxide is pictured as if the atoms were rigidly locked into place by something pictured to represent the chemical bond. One of the properties of a molecule determined by its geometry and the electronegativities of its constituent atoms is called its polarity. Carbon dioxide is known from its behavior to be a non-polar molecule. Vibrational motions in carbon dioxide can only increase in nearly equal jumps of energy, like bounding up a staircase, each step representing a higher and higher vibration frequency. For the oscillating electric field of light to be effective in producing vibrational jumps there must be an oscillating dipole in the absorbing molecule.
