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daveed12 daveed12
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11 years ago
Is it possible to determine the oxidation number of the atoms if you are not given the charge of the molecule? For example PO4^-3. Is it possible to determine the oxidation number for phosphorus and oxygen without knowing the charge of the ion?
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microRNmicroRN
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11 years ago
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wrote...
11 years ago
If you know enough about chemistry i suppose you can figure it out though unless you were going to to alot of extra work it is probably easier to just know them or to look them up.  Your example of P04 has a structure that looks like this :

......0-
......|
-O-P=O
......|
.....O-

If you know the structure you can count the charges on the loose ends of the molicule to get the charge so I would say that you can but it would require you to know the structure of the Ion.
Pls ignore the periods in the sketch couldn't get formating to stick just using spaces.
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