How and why would an atom lose electrons?

So basicly all atoms want is a full outer shell so they can gain stabitlity. They need to have a full outer shell of electrons so they can be stable. For example if a atom had a outer shell with 2 electrons it would rather lose those 2 electrons (causeing a chemical reaction) than gain 6. So it woudl lose these 2 electrons. And if your asking "hey that outer shell isnt full anymore its EMPTY" well, a shell with no electrons is basicly no shell so the shell before would become the outer shell. HOPE THIS HELPS (sorry for posting this answer in the comment earlier guys) ALSO RIP MY SPELLING

why are there 2 blank spaces in the periodic table ?

The 2 blank spaces mark the Lanthanides and Actinides, two series of elements that fit into those spaces. There are 14 elements in each of these groups. If they were included where the spaces are, the periodic table would be much wider (32 columns instead of 18 columns). Often, they are instead placed underneath the rest of the periodic table to compact it. I hope that this helps! =)

when fnding the charge of an ion does the number of neutrons matter

Not at all. The charge of a neutron is `0`.

What causes an atom to become an ion?

An atom has no charge, as it has the same number of protons (1+ charge) as electrons (1- charge). An ion has either more or less electrons than protons. Atoms become ions by gaining or losing electrons. I hope this helps! :-)

Main content

Course: High school chemistry > Unit 1

Lesson 2: Isotopes and ions

Worked example: calculating ion charge

Name: Worked example: calculating ion charge
Uploaded: 2023-12-15T18:39:28.793791463Z
Description: An atom with an electric charge is called an ion. The charge of an ion is equal to the number of protons minus the number of electrons.

Google Classroom

An atom with an electric charge is called an ion. The charge of an ion is equal to the number of protons minus the number of electrons. Created by Sal Khan.

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Tianyue Ma
Posted 3 months ago. Direct link to Tianyue Ma's post “How and why would an atom...”
How and why would an atom lose electrons?
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- 🍒Red🍒-😎😉👌🎶
  Posted 3 months ago. Direct link to 🍒Red🍒-😎😉👌🎶's post “So basicly all atoms want...”
  So basicly all atoms want is a full outer shell so they can gain stabitlity. They need to have a full outer shell of electrons so they can be stable. For example if a atom had a outer shell with 2 electrons it would rather lose those 2 electrons (causeing a chemical reaction) than gain 6. So it woudl lose these 2 electrons. And if your asking "hey that outer shell isnt full anymore its EMPTY" well, a shell with no electrons is basicly no shell so the shell before would become the outer shell. HOPE THIS HELPS (sorry for posting this answer in the comment earlier guys) ALSO RIP MY SPELLING
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  (5 votes)
Panda1904
Posted 2 months ago. Direct link to Panda1904's post “why are there 2 blank spa...”
why are there 2 blank spaces in the periodic table ?
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- TDJ
  Posted a month ago. Direct link to TDJ's post “The 2 blank spaces mark t...”
  The 2 blank spaces mark the Lanthanides and Actinides, two series of elements that fit into those spaces. There are 14 elements in each of these groups. If they were included where the spaces are, the periodic table would be much wider (32 columns instead of 18 columns). Often, they are instead placed underneath the rest of the periodic table to compact it.
  
  I hope that this helps! =)
  Comment on TDJ's post “The 2 blank spaces mark t...”
  (6 votes)
ipek1262
Posted 21 days ago. Direct link to ipek1262's post “when fnding the charge of...”
when fnding the charge of an ion does the number of neutrons matter
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- TheReal3A
  Posted 11 days ago. Direct link to TheReal3A's post “Not at all. The charge of...”
  Not at all. The charge of a neutron is 0.
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Anushka
Posted 2 months ago. Direct link to Anushka's post “What causes an atom to be...”
What causes an atom to become an ion?
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- TDJ
  Posted a month ago. Direct link to TDJ's post “An atom has no charge, as...”
  An atom has no charge, as it has the same number of protons (1+ charge) as electrons (1- charge). An ion has either more or less electrons than protons.
  Atoms become ions by gaining or losing electrons.
  
  I hope this helps! :-)
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  (4 votes)

Video transcript

- [Instructor] So we're asked, what is the charge of a calcium ion with 18 electrons? So pause this video and see if you can work that on your own. And I will give you a little bit of a tip. A periodic table of elements might be useful to see where calcium sits on that periodic table of elements. So why don't you pause this video and see if you can figure out the charge of that calcium ion. All right, so what defines the element is actually how many protons it has, and that's what we have right over here. It's a atomic number is 20, that's how many protons it has. So we could say number of protons which provide positive charge is 20. And then we know the number of electrons is 18. That's negative charge. So I'll just write it here. Number electrons, I'll abbreviate it right over there or I'll shorten it. That is 18. And this has negative charge. So if you wanna know the net charge, you take the number of protons, the positive charge and subtract out the number of electrons. And so that leaves you with positive two charge, 20 minus 18 is positive two, and we will denote that with a two plus. So some people might write this as calcium 2+ just like that. To show that it is a calcium ion, it's likely a situation maybe where the calcium originally had 20 electrons and 20 protons. So then it would not be an ion, it would just be a neutral atom. But maybe it lost those, it lost two of those electrons and so then it got a positive two or a two plus charge. Let's do another example over here. So if I were to ask you what is the charge of an ion that has seven protons, eight neutrons, and 10 electrons, pause this video and think about what that would be. Well, we can confirm that that indeed would be an ion because it has a different number of protons than it does electrons. And if you wanna figure out the charge, you just take the number of protons, seven, which are the positive charges, and you subtract out the negative charges. That's why you're subtracting, you subtract out the electrons. So seven minus 10, that would be equal to negative three. And so I would say you'd often denote that as saying a three minus charge. And if you wanted to write down what ion that is, once it's gonna go back to the periodic table of elements, we can see that if you have seven protons, by definition you are talking about nitrogen. So that would be a nitrogen ion that you would denote like that. It has a negative three or a three minus charge.