{"id":268272,"date":"2025-07-24T02:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=268272"},"modified":"2025-07-24T02:33:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:33:35","slug":"oxidation-number-of-the-nitrogen-atom-in-hno3-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/24\/oxidation-number-of-the-nitrogen-atom-in-hno3-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxidation number of the nitrogen atom in HNO3 is"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Oxidation number of the nitrogen atom in HNO3 is : A. &#8211; 1 B. + 1 C. 0 D. + 4 E. + 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-0-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is <strong>E. +5<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Explanation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to determine the oxidation number of nitrogen in <strong>HNO3<\/strong> (nitric acid), we need to follow the rules for assigning oxidation numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hydrogen (H)<\/strong> typically has an oxidation number of +1 in most of its compounds (except when it&#8217;s in hydrides with metals).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Oxygen (O)<\/strong> typically has an oxidation number of -2 in most of its compounds, except in peroxides or superoxides.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The sum of the oxidation numbers of all atoms in a neutral molecule is zero.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now let&#8217;s break down HNO3:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hydrogen (H) has an oxidation number of +1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oxygen (O) has an oxidation number of -2. Since there are three oxygen atoms in HNO3, the total contribution from oxygen atoms is 3 \u00d7 -2 = -6.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Let the oxidation number of nitrogen (N) be xxx.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, the sum of the oxidation numbers for the atoms in HNO3 should equal zero, as the compound is neutral:(+1)+(x)+3(\u22122)=0(+1) + (x) + 3(-2) = 0(+1)+(x)+3(\u22122)=0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simplifying:1+x\u22126=01 + x &#8211; 6 = 01+x\u22126=0x\u22125=0x &#8211; 5 = 0x\u22125=0x=+5x = +5x=+5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the oxidation number of nitrogen in HNO3 is <strong>+5<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes sense because nitrogen is in a high oxidation state in nitric acid, which is a strong acid and an oxidizing agent. The +5 oxidation state corresponds to the nitrogen in its most common form in nitrates (NO3\u2212) and other related compounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner6-1779.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-268273\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oxidation number of the nitrogen atom in HNO3 is : A. &#8211; 1 B. + 1 C. 0 D. + 4 E. + 5 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The correct answer is E. +5. Explanation: In order to determine the oxidation number of nitrogen in HNO3 (nitric acid), we need to follow the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}