Question

What is the difference between a chemical symbol and a chemical formula?

Answer 1

Hint: Chemical symbols are used to standardize the language of chemistry and with the help of these chemical symbols, we can easily identify elements and atoms in a chemical formula easily while a chemical formula identifies each constituent element by its chemical symbol and indicates the proportionate number of atoms of each element in a chemical compound.

Complete answer:
In chemistry, a symbol consists of one or two letters in which the first letter is in uppercase whereas the second letter is in lowercase. Majority of elements have chemical symbols based on their English name, but names of some elements which are known from ancient times are based on Latin names. A chemical formula on the other hand, is the combination of two or more elements which depicts the exact ratio of each element in a compound.
The difference between chemical symbol and chemical formula is summarized as follows:

Chemical symbol	Chemical formula
A code which identifies a specific chemical element.	The formula which shows the ratio in which the elements are present in a chemical compound.
Chemical symbols do not necessarily refer to atoms of the element but also can refer to ions.	Chemical formula refers to the chemical compounds.
It consists of a single element	It is a combination of two or more elements
Example: $Mg$	Example: $MgO$

Note:
Make sure to not to get confused between chemical formula and empirical formula as chemical formula is the actual representation of composition of elements in a compound while the empirical formula is the simplest form of expressing the elemental composition of a compound and it is not often used in chemical reactions.