How do you calculate formal charge of an ion?

1 Answer
Jun 4, 2016

Well hopefully you do it correctly.

Explanation:

See here, and here, and here,for specific examples of how to calculate a formal charge.

Most of the time when we write a chemical formula, we write it in such a way that the constituent atoms are neutral. This is not always the case, but most of the time we are understood. We could write common salt as #Na^+Cl^-# but more commonly it appears as #NaCl#. More complicated and relevant examples appear in the links and elsewhere.