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Topic: Oxidation and Valence numbers ARE THEY THE SAME?  (Read 3510 times)

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Offline appleseed

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Oxidation and Valence numbers ARE THEY THE SAME?
« on: April 14, 2010, 10:14:46 PM »
Thank you!!

Offline tamim83

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Re: Oxidation and Valence numbers ARE THEY THE SAME?
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2010, 10:07:54 AM »
No, they are not.  The oxidation number is "the "fictitious" charge on an atom that would result if the molecule containing it were completely ionic" or the charge on an atom in an ionic compound.  The valence number is the number of bonds formed by an atom in a compound. 

Hope this helps. 

Offline Evaldas

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Re: Oxidation and Valence numbers ARE THEY THE SAME?
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2010, 05:59:04 AM »
But they do have some connection between, don't they?

Offline Schrödinger

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Re: Oxidation and Valence numbers ARE THEY THE SAME?
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2010, 08:49:05 AM »
Oxidation number/state can be positive or negative, integer or fraction.
For example, Oxidation number of O in CO2 is -2 and that of C is +4

Valence number is always positive, and since it is the number of bonds formed by the atom, it is always an integer.
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