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This paper uses the theory of atoms in molecules to investigate the origin of molecular dipole moments. The dipole moment is given by a sum over the net charge and first moment of every atom in a molecule. The first term leads to a charge transfer contributionJlc' the second to an atomic polarization contribution Jla' It is shown that both terms are, in general, of equal importance in determining both the static molecular dipole moment and the moment induced by a nuclear displacement. Models which imploy only point charges and corresponding bond moments which follow rigidly the nuclear framework, i.e., models which approximate Jlc and ignoreJla' are shown to lead to results that are incompatible with the changes that are found to occur in a molecular charge distribution during a nuclear vibration. The dipole moment is shown to be another group property that is transferable between molecules in the normal hydrocarbons, This property, along with the net charge, the energy, the correlation energy (expressed as a functional of the charge density), and the atomic volumes are transferable for methyl and methylene groups because of a corresponding transferability of the distribution of charge over the basins of the atoms in these groups up to their surfaces of zero flux in the gradient vector of the charge density. Transferability of group properties is not a result of the transferability of individual orbitals or geminals, which necessarily have tails lying outside of the group in question. Atoms have no tails and their energy, as is known from experiment, can in certain instances be transferred between systems with changes of less than 1 kcal/mol. The properties of atoms in molecules can be determined experimentally and quantum mechanics predicts these properties, just as it predicts the properties of a total system.

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