Eº in 14.11, 13, 15

[Lindsay H 2B]

More of a technical than conceptual question, but I noticed that the solutions manual solves for Eº in problems 11, 13, and 15 even though cell potential is not asked for in any of these problems. 11, 13, and 15 are all along the lines of writing the balanced redox reaction from cell diagrams and vice versa. Am I missing something?

[Kyle Sheu 1C]

When adding the half-reactions, we want to form a chemical equation such that Eº is positive and maximized. By writing out the Eº of each half-reaction, we can determine which is oxidized and which is reduced.

[Cassidy 1G]

Adding on to this, we can use the Eº values for the half-rxns to determine which element is oxidized and which is reduced by seeing which way the half-rxns can be manipulated to result in the highest total Eº value. By this I mean we see which half-rxn has to be reversed in order for the total Eº to be the greatest. This concept is explained on this website:
https://www.chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/gen ... /18_52.htm