Formal Charge

[Elijah E 1C]

What is the best way to remember how to calculate formal charge since the equation will not be given to us?

[tmehrazar]

what works for me is just doing valence electrons - nonbonding electrons - bonding electrons/2
i just try to remember the total you have is the valence, then you remove the lone electrons you used, then the bonding electrons divided by 2 because they're shared

[Caitlyn Ponce 1L]

I just count the number of valence electrons the element has and subtract that with the number of lone electrons (dots) and bonds (lines) associated with it.

[Joshua Yang 1H]

# of valence electrons - (number of dots + number of lines) = Formal charge

[Cindy Nguyen 1L]

Other than just memorizing it, practice makes you know it and then calculate them faster.