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Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Zidane on August 23, 2018, 07:44:55 AM

Title: Chemical formula
Post by: Zidane on August 23, 2018, 07:44:55 AM

Chemical formula for Lactic acid is C3H6O3 ... can't we divide these number by a common number and write CH2O..?

Title: Re: Chemical formula
Post by: sjb on August 23, 2018, 08:15:55 AM

At a simple level, no - what is the formula for e.g. formaldehyde, or glucose? It may be that CH₂O is a useful way of thinking of this though depending on context

Title: Re: Chemical formula
Post by: mjc123 on August 23, 2018, 08:20:48 AM

Look up "Empirical formula" and "Molecular formula".

Title: Re: Chemical formula
Post by: Mitch on August 24, 2018, 02:51:55 PM

Quote from: Zidane on August 23, 2018, 07:44:55 AM

Chemical formula for Lactic acid is C3H6O3 ... can't we divide these number by a common number and write CH2O..?

Just because you can doesn't mean it is chemically significant. You could write H₂O as H_0.2O_0.1, but you would lose the chemical significance that each molecule of water has exactly two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.