Editing Oxidation state (section)

==== Oxidation-state determination from resonance formulas ====
Seemingly ambiguous oxidation states are derived from a set of [[resonance]] formulas of equal weights for a molecule having heteronuclear bonds where the atom connectivity does not correspond to the number of two-electron bonds dictated by the 8&nbsp;−&nbsp;''N'' rule.<ref name="10.1515/pac-2013-0505" />{{rp|1027}} An example is [[Disulfur dinitride|S<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>]] where four resonance formulas featuring one S=N double bond have oxidation states +2 and +4 for the two sulfur atoms, which average to +3 because the two sulfur atoms are equivalent in this square-shaped molecule.