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Ch.3 - Molecules and Compounds

Chapter 3, Problem 61a

Write the formula for each acid. a. hydrofluoric acid

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Hey everyone in this example we need to find the chemical formula of Hydrofluoric acid. So what we should recognize instantly is that because we have this beginning saying hydro this is referring to our hydro ni um ion or proton within our molecular or chemical formula. Next, we want to also recognize that we have this ending. This is referring to the fact that we have a binary acid. And we want to recall that a binary acid consists of a hydro knee, um adam bonded to a non metal atom, just one non metal atom. And so now that we understand, we only have one other non metal atom to bond this hydro knee. Um to it makes it simpler to find our chemical formula. So the next thing we want to recognize is that this ending is a addition to the base of our name here. So what we really had before was we've removed this ending and we're left with the base brome. And so when we look at the base it looks very familiar to what we can recall as bromine. And so I mean we should recognize is symbolized by the capital B. Lowercase R. Element on our periodic tables. And it's found In Group seven A. We should recall that our group number corresponds to our ion charge and recall that atoms in Group seven A typically form a minus one charge. So we would therefore form the B. R minus an ion. And so overall we have the combination of and h plus hydro ni um With a B. R. And because we have a -1 and plus one charge, these two charges are going to cancel one another out. And so what we're going to have is therefore a chemical formula of H b R for Hydrofluoric acid. And so this is going to complete this example as our final answer for the chemical formula of our given acid. If you have any questions, leave them down below, and I will see everyone in the next practice video.