NCERT Exercise 4.15 - Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure
Question: Why is CO2 linear while H2O is bent, using dipole moment?
Answer: CO2 has two equal C=O bond dipoles in a linear, opposite arrangement, so they cancel and mu = 0. H2O has a bent shape, so its O-H dipoles do not cancel and mu is non-zero.
Full step-by-step NCERT solution with diagrams on Something by Zero.