Explanation of Ion charges

Question

For my chemistry class, I need to memorize all of the ion charges. However, first, I need to understand them and the way my teacher explained them did not help.

How do ionic charges work and what would be the best way to memorize them without using a periodic table?

Answer 1

Not sure how you memorize them without a periodic table, except for the obvious, most common ones, like Na, K, Mg, S, O, F, Cl, Br, I, etc. But here is the trend...

Group 1 (Li, Na, K, etc) will have a charge of 1+

Group 2 (Be, Mg, Ca, etc) will have a charge of 2+

Group 13 (B, Al, Ga, etc.) will have a charge of 3+

Group 14 (C, Si, Ge, etc.) don't worry about right now

Group 115 (N, P, As, etc) will have a charge of 3-

Group 116 (O, S, Se etc) will have a charge of 2-

Group 117 (F, Cl, Br etc) will have a charge of 1-

Group 118 (He, Ne, Ar etc) wil have no charge

I've left out the transition elements (groups 3 - 12). If you want to learn those, post another question.