Oxidation States and Chemical Names
Like Duolingo, but for Oxidation States and Chemical Names. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Determining Oxidation Numbers and Translating States into Names. It assumes you already know the basics.
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Key ideas in Oxidation States and Chemical Names
- Identical bonded atoms share electrons equally, yielding no net charge shift.
- Elemental substances carry zero oxidation state regardless of atom count.
- Fluorine is the most electronegative element and strictly claims -1 in all compounds.
- Oxygen must adopt a positive oxidation state (+2) when bonded to fluorine to balance charges.
- Group 1 alkali metals strictly hold +1 states in all chemical compounds.
- Group 2 alkaline earth metals invariably form +2 states in all chemical compounds.
- Variable nonmetal charges resolve by offsetting fixed metal cation sums.
- Hydrogen adopts +1 when bonded to nonmetals but switches to -1 in metal hydrides.
- Oxygen adopts -2 in standard binary oxides but shifts to -1 in peroxides like H2O2.
- The sum of all oxidation numbers across a neutral compound must equal zero.
- Two oxide ions contribute -4 total, requiring titanium to balance at +4.
- Constituent oxidation states in polyatomic ions sum to the overall ion charge
- Neutral molecules sum to zero, but oxoanion sums match their negative charge
- Setting sulfate's four oxygen states (-8) against a net -2 charge leaves sulfur at +6
- Superoxides like KO2 pair a +1 alkali metal with an O2- unit, giving oxygen -1/2
- Peroxides contain an O-O single bond where oxygen takes an atypical -1 state
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Oxidation States and Chemical Names the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
In a ring of eight sulfur atoms (S8), what is the oxidation state of each atom?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Oxidation States and Chemical Names takes you
Crack the electron bookkeeping rules that govern chemical compounds. Learn how to calculate oxidation states, navigate tricky polyatomic exceptions, and translate chemical formulas into precise systematic names using the Stock system.
- 1
Determining Oxidation Numbers
- Fast Bookkeeping for Neutral and Binary Compounds
- Solving Polyatomic Oxoanions and State Exceptions
- 2
Translating States into Names
- Naming Variable Metals with the Stock System
- Decoding Oxyacids and Anion Series by Oxidation State
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Oxidation States and Chemical Names is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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