How can you tell the charge on an element/atom? Do you referto the periodic tabl

Question

How can you tell the charge on an element/atom? Do you referto the periodic table? Is there some general rules? Help Please!Urgent! Also, when you have a partially charged negative ions, and apartially charged positive ions, the molecule is considered to havedipole-dipole attration. Is that true? How can you tell the charge on an element/atom? Do you referto the periodic table? Is there some general rules? Help Please!Urgent! Also, when you have a partially charged negative ions, and apartially charged positive ions, the molecule is considered to havedipole-dipole attration. Is that true?

Explanation / Answer

Atoms gain or lose electrons (e-) to become MORE stable. Youmay have heard of this referred to as the "Octet Rule".
Yes, the periodic table is arranged in a certain way to makethis easy. Atoms on the 'left side' form positive ions, atoms onthe 'right side' form negative ions. Elements in the first column form +1 ions because they need tolose on e- (become +1) to form a 'stable octet'. ('Stable octet'means that the outer (valence) shell of the electrons is full;this indicates stability). Atoms in the second column lose 2, andbecome +2. The transition metals have varied charges, and manyhave two relatively probable charged states. In early courses,knowing only a select few is often required. Your teacher cananswer this. Now, from Boron to the end (going to the right now), youhave 3+,skip Carbon,3-,2-,1-. These numbers follow down thecolumns, as they did at the start of the table. For example, elements in column 7 (the halogens) for 1- ions..column 6 form 2-, column 5 form 3-... a similar pattern tocolumn 1 and 2 that we considered earlier. Recall that Noble Gases (column 8) are already a state octect-thus the name. They do no ionize.

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