The atom must lose 2 electrons
Explanation:
An atom consists of three types of particles:
- Protons, in the nucleus, with positive electric charge
- Neutrons, in the nucleus, with no electric charge
- Electrons, orbiting around the nucleus, with negative electric charge
As a result, the net electric charge of an atom is given by the number of protons minus the number of electrons:
Q = #p - #e
For a neutral atom, the number of protons and electrons is the same, so the net charge is zero.
In order for an atom to have a positive charge of +2, it means that there must be 2 protons more than the number of electrons. Since atoms exchange electrons (and not protons), this means that the atom must have "lost" 2 electrons.
In this problem, we have an atom with 13 protons: this means that initially it also has 13 electrons. However, later the atom lost 2 electrons, and as a result, the final charge is +2e.
Learn more about atoms:
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