Formula, Chemical

A chemical formula is a combination of chemical symbols that represents the chemical composition of a compound. At a minimum, a formula tells which elements are present in the compound and the relative amount of each element. The chemical formula most familiar to people is probably H2O, the formula for water. This formula says that water consists of two elements, hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O). Further, it says that the ratio of the two elements is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. On a submicroscopic scale, the formula says that a molecule of water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.

Determining chemical formulas

A chemical formula...

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