Chemistry Arrows
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Good Morning,
We were working on a set of chemistry worksheets and were unsure of the arrows between both R & G in reduction and O & L in oxidation and whether there would be spacing required between the arrows and the letters.
The closest thing we could find was in 3.2.4
Thank you for your time & help!
Hi. I'm asking a few chemists about this unusual notation. I'll have an answer for you soon!
- Lindy
Thank you for this question. I have an answer! The two column headings are mnemonics for students to remember how to count oxidation numbers.
R means Reduction; G means gain (the species is gaining electrons) …so the oxidation number goes to the left on the number line (becomes more negative) or goes down (down arrow).
O means Oxidation; L means losing (the species is losing electrons) … so the oxidation number goes to the right on the number line (becomes more positive) or goes up (up arrow).
The arrows have no chemical meaning and are just representative of a direction of how the numbers increase or decrease.
With that in mind, I suggest using Nemeth arrows here, preceded and followed by a space. See attached file. Because these are column headings, I am including the seven rows in the transcription.
FYI: Another mnemonic that is used is OIL RIG (oxidation is loss, reduction is gain) for students to remember how the electrons are transferred.
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