Educational Technical Drawing: Chemical Formulas Explained

A recipe tells you how many eggs you need for a cake, detailing its ingredients.

In chemistry, a formula is very similar. It tells you exactly how many

atoms are present. Here, 'H' and 'O' are the ingredients, and the formula

reveals their precise count. Now, let's learn a crucial rule for

understanding these chemical formulas. One Carbon. Two Oxygen. Don't make this

common mistake! The subscript, that small number, only applies to the element directly

before it. What about something like table salt, NaCl? Can you spot

any numbers here? When you don't see a number, it means there's just one atom