In this lecture, we're going to focus on two important properties of water, and we're going to see how these two properties lead to an effect known as the hydrophobic effect. So let's begin by discussing property number one, the fact that water is a polar molecule. It contains an electric dipole moment. Now, a single water molecule consists of three individual atoms. We have the central oxygen atom, which is a large molecule, and the two tiny H atoms found on a side. Now.