What is meant by the term empirical formula?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 3, 2017

#"The empirical formula is the........."#

Explanation:

The empirical formula is the simplest whole number ratio that relates constituent atoms in a species.

For molecules such as #C_4H_10# or #C_8H_20# the empirical formulae is thus clearly #C_2H_5#. Why so?

See here, and here for an example in which an empirical formula is calculated.

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