Puzzled about calcium phosphate!?

Question

Does anyone know how to get the cation, anion and formula for calcium phosphate?

Thanks very much!!

Answer 1

Cation is the calcium ion, Ca+2
Anion is the phosphate ion, PO4 -3

To balance out the charges, you need 6 positive and 6 negative, so the formula for the salt is:

Ca3(PO4)2

Answer 2

Calcium is a +2, Ca+2

Phosphate is a -3 or PO4(-3)

therefore Ca3(PO4)2

This is Tri-basic Calcium Phosphate. Warning this is a bit of a trick question because there's also, Monobasic-, Dibasic-, Meta-, and Pyro-, and they all have different molecular formulas...