Determine the only possible \(2+\) ion for which the following two conditions are both satisfied: \(\bullet\) The net ionic charge is one-tenth the nuclear charge. \(\bullet\) The number of neutrons is four more than the number of electrons.

Short Answer

Expert verified
The only possible \(2+\) ion for which both conditions are satisfied is an atomic ion with 20 protons (nuclear charge), 18 electrons, and 22 neutrons. This corresponds to the isotope of Calcium, represented as \(^{42}Ca^{2+}\).

Step by step solution

01

Interpret the conditions into equations

The conditions given can be expressed as follows: 1. The net ionic charge is one-tenth the nuclear charge. The net ionic charge (nuclear charge - number of electrons) is \(2+\), and the nuclear charge is the number of protons (let's denote this as \(p\)). Therefore, this condition can be written as \(2 = p/10\). 2. The number of neutrons is four more than the number of electrons. Let's denote the number of neutrons as \(n\) and the number of electrons as \(e\). This can be written as \(n = e + 4\).
02

Solve the first equation

Solving the first equation \(2 = p/10\) for \(p\), we find that \(p = 20\). So, the ion has 20 protons.
03

Determine the number of electrons

Knowing that it's a \(2+\) ion, it means that the ion has lost 2 electrons. So, the number of electrons (\(e\)) would be 20 (the number of protons) - 2 (due to the \(2+\) charge), which gives us 18 electrons.
04

Solve the second equation

Now, substituting the number of electrons into the second equation \(n = e + 4\), we get \(n = 18 + 4 = 22\). So, the ion has 22 neutrons.

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