[jjkwest1]

"When formic acid donates the proton from its oxygen to a base, a formate ion is the result. Write another resonance structure for formic acid and for formate ion. Which species, formic acid or formate ion would be most stabilized by resonance?"

I did the resonance structures and got 3 resonance structures for formic acid and 2 resonance structure for formate ion. because of this i thought that formic acid would be more stabilized, however the book says that formate ion is more stabilized because of its equivalent structures.

My question is, is formate ion really more stabilized because of the equivalent structures regardless of the fact that it has less resonance structures than formic acid?

Thanks

[Jorriss]

It's not simply which has more resonance structures, it's what has more 'good' resonance structures (and keep in mind, resonance isn't the only factor to stability). For example, does anyone ever mention the resonance structures of ethene?