Formal Charge Equation?

[Michelle N - 2C]

I noticed that there are two equations:

FC = V + (L+B) and FC = V + (L + B/2).

Both depend on how you count the shared bond?

[SnehinRajkumar1L]

Yes, that is correct. The first one treats each bond as 1 electron, the other treats it as 2.

[Jaci Glassick 2G]

In the first equation, you count the number of actual bonds (so for a double bond, you would count 2 bonds so you plug 2 in for B). In the second, B is the number of electrons shared by the bonds (a double bond shared 4 electrons, so you plug 4 into B). I hope this helps!

[Victoria Otuya 4F]

I learned an easier way to remember the formal charge equation: valence electron -(dots + line).

[Destiny_Ryales_3J]

do you include the subscripts between different elements in your calculations?

[Lauren Sanchez 3D]

I learned an easier way to remember the formal charge equation: valence electron -(dots + line).

That is a really good way to remember it!

[Presley Gao 2C]

Yes, both depend on how you count the shared bond. The first equation treats the number of bonds as how many "lines" you draw as bonds, while the second equation treats the number of bonds as the amount of valence electrons that are shared in total between an atom and another respective atom. Both are correct, and should give you the same, accurate answer.

[305416361]

I learned an easier way to remember the formal charge equation: valence electron -(dots + line).

does this count "dots" as pairs of dots or individual ones?

[Christine Honda 2I]

I learned an easier way to remember the formal charge equation: valence electron -(dots + line).

does this count "dots" as pairs of dots or individual ones?

Count each dot as one electron each.

[Rohan Kubba Dis 4B]

Also, my TA I taught us a really easy way:

Valence electrons of element-(number of bonds(lines) + the number of lone electrons(not pairs)). This seemed to work for me and it was fast too. Another trick I learned was that when finding the formal charge for oxygen, if it was double bonded and had two loan pairs of electrons, it had a formal charge of zero.

[gferg21]

The best way to do it is the first equation you put down. It needs less steps to figure it out, which could mean more time for questions on tests. The (b/2) seems a bit unnecessary but I understand that it is just to show that only one electron is actually the individual atom's.

[Mallika Chimpiri 3K]

In the first equation, B is counted as a bond, while in the second equations B is counted as each shared electron. That's why when counted as singular electrons, it has to be divided by 2 to account for the bonds.

[Leyna Dang 2H]

You could use Formal Charge= Valence Electrons + (Lone Pairs - Bonds/2), but an easier way to calculate the formal charge is to check the valence electron of the element and subtract the number of dots and lines it has.