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What is the Lewis structure for C4H8? How is this determined?
I see. And how do I determine the formal charges for each atom?
That's a great question. The formal charge of an atom is the difference between the number of valence electrons on the atom and the number of electrons it is actually associated with in the molecule. For carbon, the formal charge is calculated as FC = valence electrons - (lone pair electrons + 0.5 x bonding electrons). For hydrogen, it is FC = valence electrons - (lone pair electrons + bonding electrons). Once you have the formal charges for each atom, you can adjust the Lewis structure to make sure the formal charges add up to zero, which means the molecule is neutral overall.