periodic table - charges of transitional metals

[Lessian]

Hello.

am trying to find out how to determine what the charge of a transitional metal is based on the periodic table, with the end goal of working out a name for the compound formula and quantities of each atom etc.

when given a chem compound formula containing a transitional metal and a main group non metal, finding the charge of the non metal is easy. my textbook says that transitional metals have different rules to the main group ones but does not tell me how to get the charge of them.

I know it has something to do with the roman numerals along the top, but only keep being referred back to the main group elements.

any help with this would be muchly appreciated.

[Mr Skeptic]

The transitional metal elements can have all kinds of charges, some more commonly than others.

[Lessian]

The transitional metal elements can have all kinds of charges, some more commonly than others.

 

yeah, but what I am trying to find out is how do you tell what that charge would be? is there any kind of indicator or something, rather than having to just pull a random number out of a blackhole?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The way I was taught, you just have to pull a number out of nowhere. It's possible to memorize some of it, as some metals are predictable, but there's no pattern -- you just have to know.