How do you find the charge of an element?

Answer 1

Answer

Take the number of protons (which is given by the atomic number) and subtract the number of electrons. That number is the charge on the atom or ion.

You can't take the number of protons and subtract from the number of electrons because both numbers are the same. That is also not how you find the charge. By taking the mass number- number of protons = neutrons. This is finding neutrons. I'll post the answer later, but this is a comment.

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Depends on what you are asking. If you are asking the charge of an atom, the first answer is correct. So a charge of any atom is 0. If you are asking the charge of an ion (ionic charge), then you have to look at the Periodic Table. We know that metals loose electrons (so has a positive charge aka cations) and nonmetals gain electrons (so has a negative charge aka anions).

So look at the graph. The metals all have a charge of their group number.
Ex: Li is in group 1A. So Li is Li+
Mg is in group 2A. So Mg is Mg2+
and so on.

For nonmetals, you look at the group number and subtract 8. (group # - 8 = charge)
Ex: O is in group 6A. 6-8=-2. So O is O2-
N is in group 5A. 5-8=-3. So N is N3-
Cl is in group 7A. 7-8=-1. So Cl is Cl-
He is in group 8A. 8-8=0. So He has no charge.

Answer 2

Take the number of protons minus the number of electrons.

See the Related Questions link to the left to find out how to count the number of proton, electrons and neutrons in any atom.

Answer 3

the charge of an element is how many more electrons or protons there are

say i have an atom with 5 protons and 6 electrons

the charge would be -1 (-)

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say i have an atom with 5 protons and 7 electrons

the charge would be -2

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say i have an atom with 6 protons and 5 electrons

the charge would be +1 (+)

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say i have an atom with 7 protons and 5 electrons

the charge would be +2

Answer 4

A neutral atom of an element should have no charge - the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons orbiting the nucleus. However, an ion (charged atom) has an imbalance between the number of protons and electrons. To determine the charge, subtract the number of electrons from the number of protons (Protons - Electrons = Charge). If there are more electrons the charge will be negative; if there are more protons the charge will be positive.

Answer 5

The Ionic charge of an atom depends on wether the atom has lost or gained an electron. If the atom loses an electron it will have a positive charge becasue the protons outnumber the electrons. Protons are positive and Electrons an negative. If the Atom Gains an electron it will have a negative charge because the electrons outnumber the protons.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 6

The Charge of the Atom can be found by determining the number of protons and electrons in the atom...if they are equal to each other it is neutral if there are more protons it is positive... if there are more electrons, it is negative...Hope i helped

Answer 7

All of the elements in the periodic table have a neutral charge. If you have an ion (an atom with a charge), you can find the charge by taking the atomic number (the number of protons in an element) and subtracting the number of electrons. Also, many of the elements on the periodic table (except trasitional metals) basically want to achieve the electron configuration of noble gases. So for example, a chlorine ion would want to achieve the electron configuration of Argon, so chlorine would gain an electron and have a 1- charge. Another example would be Sodium this would want to achieve the electron configuration of Neon (the closest noble gas) and it would lose an electron and would have a 1+ charge and have the electron configuration of Neon.

Answer 8

An atom's charge is always neutral.

Answer 9

You count the number of electrons and protons. You subtract the electron number from the proton number and that gives you the net charge.