Chapter 4, Problem 3SC

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The reason for the statement “${\text{MgCl}}_2$ is named magnesium chloride and not as magnesium dichloride” is to be explained.

Concept Introduction:

Ionic compounds are named by writing the name of cation (metal), followed by anion (non-metal) with a suffix “ide”.

While naming the ionic compounds prefixes such as di or tri are not used to indicate any number of atoms.