CHEMICAL FORMULAS AND FORMULA WEIGHT （化学公式和公式的体重）.pdf

CHEMICAL FORMULAS AND FORMULA WEIGHT CALCULATIONS 1. THE MEANING OF A CHEMICAL FORMULA A chemical formula is a shorthand method of representing the elements in a compound. The formula shows the formulas of the elements in the compound and the ratio of the elements to one another. For example, the forumla for sodium chloride: NaCl tells us that the compound is composed of the elements sodium, Na, and chlorine, Cl, in a one-to-one ratio. That is, one atom of sodium combines with one atom of chlorine. When elements combine in different ratios, subscripts are added, following the element symbol, to -indicate that the number of atoms of that element in the compound if it is greater than one. The subscript refers only to the element it immediately follows. For example, the formula for magnesium bromide: MgBr2 tells us that two bromine atoms combine with one magnesium atom. Some elements form stable groups, or polyatomic ions, that combine with other elements to form compounds. An example of this is the sulfate polyatomic ion in the compound calcium sulfate: CaSO4 In this compound, the SO4 is called a sulfate group. It consists of one sulfur atom combined with four oxygen atoms. The sulfate group cannot exist by itself and must be combined with another element. The compound CaSO4 consists of one calcium atom combined with one sulfate group. Counting atoms, calcium sulfate consists of one calcium atom, one sulfur atom, and four oxygen atoms. Another example of an atom combined with a polyatomic ion is barium nitrate: Ba(NO ) 3 2 Th