the.com/chemical formulas
the periodic table's way of texting you exactly who's hooking up with whom, and how many times.
means a compact notation showing which elements make up a substance and in what ratio, using symbols and subscript numbers.
from grew out of john dalton's early 1800s atomic symbols and jons jacob berzelius's 1810s system of using letters instead of dalton's little circles, because chemists got tired of drawing pictures.
subscriptscount atoms, never the whole molecule's charge
structural vs empiricalsame formula can hide wildly different shapes
hill systemcarbon first, hydrogen second, rest alphabetical, always
ionic exceptionratios only, since crystals have no single molecule