How many electrons are in a CL-34 ion with a negative one charge?

Question

aaronq · Answer

how many electrons does an neutral Cl atom have?

anonymous · Answer

17

aaronq · Answer

and what is the charge on an electron?

anonymous · Answer

-

aaronq · Answer

-1 right?

so if have a Cl ion with a -1 charge, how many electrons would have?

anonymous · Answer

16?

aaronq · Answer

nope, if it had 16 it would have lost one and it would have a 1+ charge.

when you add electrons to an atom it gains negative charges.

anonymous · Answer

so 18?

aaronq · Answer

yep

anonymous · Answer

what does the 34 have to do with anything?

aaronq · Answer

that's the mass number, the sum of protons and neutrons of the chlorine atom/ion.

do you know what isotopes are?

anonymous · Answer

no.

aaronq · Answer

they're atoms of the same element (that is the same number of protons, because it dictates the type of atom it is) but with a different number of neutrons.

So Cl-37 and Cl-38 will have the same number of protons (17) but will differ in the number of neutrons they have and thus the mass number.