Magnesium ions carry a 2+ charge, and chloride ions carry a 1- charge. What is the chemical formula for the ionic compound magnesium chloride?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The chemical formula for an ionic compound is determined by the crisscross method, where the absolute value of the charges of each ion are swapped to become subscripts. This gives us MgCl2 as the chemical formula for magnesium chloride. However, we must then simplify the formula to its lowest ratio. Since both ions are in a 1:1 ratio, we can simply write it as MgCl. Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because they do not have the correct subscripts or contain extra characters (such as "S1U1B" which are likely formatting errors).

Magnesium Ions Carry a 2+ Charge, and Chloride Ions Carry