Cell Potential

[haileyramsey-1c]

During class, Dr. Lavelle did a few examples calculating cell potential (E). But i was wondering why you don't flip the sign of for the oxidation half reaction? I know he touched on this during lecture but I am still confused.

[Max Madrzyk Dis 4G]

I am pretty sure you don't flip the sign because it is already accounted for in the equation. I'm not positive though and I know he went over two different ways to get the same answer and the sign was changed in one of the ways but not the other.

[Izzie Capra 2E]

It is basically the same thing, Dr. Lavelle was just using the equation instead of reasoning through the sign change. I like to flip the sign of the oxidation half-reaction then sum them together. I think the equation gets confusing with all the signs.

[Ryan Lee 1E]

Depending on which strategy you use, you will either switch the sign or not. If you flip the half reaction then you will have to multiply by -1, but if you are doing the cathode - anode strategy, then you should not switch the sign since the subtraction will account for the negative sign already.