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Chemical Formulas: How to Represent Compounds
Common chemical formulas include the following:
- NaCl for table salt, indicating sodium and chlorine atoms in a 1:1 ratio.
- CO2 for carbon dioxide, indicating carbon and oxygen atoms in a 1:2 ratio.
- C12H22O11 for table sugar (sucrose), indicating carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in a 12:22:11 ratio.
- The subscripts in a chemical formula represent the relative numbers of each type of atom in a chemical compound; they never change for a given compound.