Question

What is the meaning of the chemical formula of a compound? What information do we get from the formula? Write your answer by giving a suitable example.

Answer 1

Hint: Chemical compound is formed by the combination of different atoms or elements attached through bonding. The chemical formula of a compound can be written by the elements or atoms present in that particular compound. The number of atoms and name of atoms, molar mass of atoms can be known from the chemical formula of a compound.

Complete answer:
Chemical compounds are of different types and of very large numbers in chemistry, these all can be identified from their chemical formulas mostly. The chemical formula is the representation of the atoms present in that chemical compound.
For example, formaldehyde is an aldehyde, the chemical formula of formaldehyde is \[HCHO\], the atoms in the formaldehyde are hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.
The information like number of atoms, names of atoms and molar mass of atoms can be known from the chemical formula of the compound.
In formaldehyde, there are a total of four atoms, which includes two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom, and one carbon atom. The molar mass of these atoms can also be known.

Note:
So chemical molecules will have the same molecular formula and the same number of atoms, but the structure and properties will be entirely different. So, by knowing only chemical formulas one may not be able to predict the complete chemical properties of a chemical compound. Those compounds with the same chemical formula but different structures are called isomers.