Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element which differ in neutron number, although all

isotopes of a given element have the same number of protons in each atom. The term isotope is formed
from the Greek roots isos ( "equal") and topos ( "place"), meaning "the same place". Thus,
different isotopes of a single element occupy the same position on the periodic table. The number of
protons within the atom's nucleusis called atomic number and is equal to the number of electrons in the
neutral (un-ionized) atom. Each atomic number identifies a specific element, but not the isotope; an atom
of a given element may have a wide range in its number of neutrons. The number of nucleons (both
protons and neutrons) in the nucleus is the atom's mass number, and each isotope of a given element
has a different mass number.
For example, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are three isotopes of the element carbon with mass
numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. The atomic number of carbon is 6, which means that every carbon
atom has 6 protons, so that the neutron numbers of these isotopes are 6, 7 and 8 respectively.

An isotope is a form of a chemical element whose atomic nucleus contains a

specific number of neutron s, in addition to the number of proton s that
uniquely defines the element. The nuclei of most atom s contain neutrons as
well as protons. (An exception is the common form of hydrogen, whose
nucleus consists of a lone proton.) Every chemical element has more than
one isotope. For any element, one of the isotopes is more abundant in nature
than any of the others, although often multiple isotopes of a single element
are mixed.

Introduction:
Sometimes atoms will have extra or not enough electron electrons. This
imbalance of electrons is denoted with a formal charge. A negative formal
charge means there are too many electrons on atom. (Remember electrons
are negatively charged.) A positive formal charge means there are not
enough electrons on an atom. One confusing thing about formal charges is
that we do not simply count up all of the electrons around an atom.
Different types of electrons are counted differently. Non-bonding electrons
are counted individually. However, electrons in bonds are counted as being
shared and so each pair of electrons in a bond counts as only one electron.

How to:

To calculate formal charge of an atom, use the equation below. Take the
valence number of the atom and subtract the number of bonds and the
number of non-bonding electrons.
(Atomic number) - (Number of electrons present) = (overall electrical charge of atom)