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Old 05-11-2008, 11:19 AM   #1
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Please help me with AP Chem

Just answer me thinking that I don't know anything.

I have a few problems.

1. How do I know how many ions does a compound break into by just looking at the chemical formula of the compound?

2. If two compounds are mixed, how do I know which ions will combine and precipitate?

3. Most importantly, if the chemical formula is written in text, how do I know how many atoms of each element are present. For e.g. if Copper (II) Chloride is written, how do I figure out that it is CuCl?


Please help me.
apples is offline  
Old 05-11-2008, 11:26 AM   #2
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1) Generally, if something breaks up into ions in a solution, the number of each atom in the compound shows how many it breaks up into.

Eg - Ca(OH)2 -> Ca2+ + 2OH-

2) You just need to know which combination of ions precipitate, there are many solubility charts online. Here's one:

Solubility chart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3) Cu(II) tells you that its a copper molecule with a charge of 2+

Similarly if it was Cu (I) it would only have +1 charge.

Since you know (or should know) that Cl has a charge of -1, it would take 2 Cl molecules to bond with one Cu (II)

Hence: CuCl2
DoctorCrocodile is offline  
Old 05-11-2008, 11:33 AM   #3
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Hey thanks.
For my 1st question.
What about it's something like
C6H12O6, it doesn't break at all then?
Also NaNO3 now this has 3 different atoms, but it breaks up only into two ions.
How do I know this?
apples is offline  
Old 05-11-2008, 11:36 AM   #4
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Organic molecules usually don't dissociate (AFAIK), so I dont think c6h12o6 does either. The thing about NaNO3 is that even thought It has 3 oxygens, nitrate is a polyatomic ion, which means you treat it as one ion. So NaNO3 breaks up into Na+ + NO3-. You can find a list of polyatomics online as well. This is really important. I recommend memorizing the important ones.
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Old 05-11-2008, 11:39 AM   #5
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Is there a list of only important polyatomic ions
apples is offline  
Old 05-11-2008, 11:39 AM   #6
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looks liek you wont do very well on the AP test. those things are some of the basics of regular chemistry.
Wneckid99 is offline  
Old 05-11-2008, 11:40 AM   #7
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yes- heres a good list- the top are the most common so you should really just know those and youll be fine

Polyatomic Ions
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Old 05-11-2008, 02:26 PM   #8
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c6h12o6 dissolves, but doesn't dissociate

ionic compounds and strong acids DO dissociate
shrubber is offline  
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