Why is the empirical formula important?

1 Answer
May 15, 2018

Why...? Well, it gives us the elemental composition of a substance in terms of a percentage....

Explanation:

And given the #"empirical formula"#, and THEN a determination of the molecular mass of the substance we can find the molecular formula, which of course is a whole number multiple of the #"empirical formula"#...

i.e. #"molecular formula"=nxx{"empirical formula"}#

...of course #n# may be equal to ONE....