{"id":29432,"date":"2025-06-21T04:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T04:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=29432"},"modified":"2025-06-21T04:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T04:19:17","slug":"how-many-valence-electrons-are-in-a-molecule-of-formaldehyde-ch2o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/how-many-valence-electrons-are-in-a-molecule-of-formaldehyde-ch2o\/","title":{"rendered":"How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formaldehyde (CH2O)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formaldehyde (CH2O)? Point A: 010 Point B: 016 Point C: 08 How many valence electrons are in a polyatomic ion of formate (CH3O-)? Point A: 010<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Correct Answers:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Question 44:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formaldehyde (CH\u2082O)?<br>\u2705 <strong>Correct answer: 12<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explanation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To calculate the total number of <strong>valence electrons<\/strong> in formaldehyde (CH\u2082O), count the valence electrons of each atom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Carbon (C):<\/strong> 4 valence electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hydrogen (H):<\/strong> 1 valence electron \u00d7 2 = 2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Oxygen (O):<\/strong> 6 valence electrons<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total = 4 (C) + 2 (H) + 6 (O) = 12 valence electrons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Question 45:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formate ion (CH\u2083O\u207b)?<br>\u2705 <strong>Correct answer: 18<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>However, <strong>none of the options in your screenshot are correct<\/strong> for CH\u2083O\u207b. Let&#8217;s see why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explanation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Carbon (C):<\/strong> 4 valence electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hydrogen (H):<\/strong> 1 \u00d7 3 = 3 valence electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Oxygen (O):<\/strong> 6 valence electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Extra electron (\u207b charge):<\/strong> 1 additional electron<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total = 4 (C) + 3 (H) + 6 (O) + 1 (charge) = 14 valence electrons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u26a0\ufe0f The correct total for <strong>CH\u2083O\u207b<\/strong> (formate ion with one hydrogen on carbon) is <strong>14 valence electrons<\/strong>, <strong>not 8, 10, 12, or 16<\/strong> as listed in the options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There may be confusion with <strong>formic acid (HCOOH)<\/strong> or <strong>formate ion (HCOO\u207b)<\/strong> which contains 18 valence electrons. That structure is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1 Carbon (4)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 Hydrogen (1)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 Oxygen (6\u00d72 = 12)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 extra electron for the negative charge (1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total = 4 + 1 + 12 + 1 = 18<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if the question meant <strong>HCOO\u207b (formate ion)<\/strong>, the correct number of valence electrons is <strong>18<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>CH\u2082O (formaldehyde): 12 valence electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CH\u2083O\u207b (methoxide ion): 14 valence electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>HCOO\u207b (formate ion): 18 valence electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The image shows correct choice for CH\u2082O but incorrect or unclear options for the ion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-119.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-29433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-119.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-119-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-119-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-119-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formaldehyde (CH2O)? Point A: 010 Point B: 016 Point C: 08 How many valence electrons are in a polyatomic ion of formate (CH3O-)? Point A: 010 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Correct Answers: Question 44: How many valence electrons are in a molecule of formaldehyde [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29434,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29432\/revisions\/29434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}