News tagged with chemical composition

Researchers publish new findings on aging pediatric bruises

A multi-university research group which includes several University of Notre Dame faculty and graduate students, has recently published a paper detailing new work on the analysis and dating of human bruises. The research, ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Hacking the SEM: Crystal phase detection for nanoscale samples

(PhysOrg.com) -- Custom modifications of equipment are an honored tradition of the research lab. In a recent paper, two materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology describe how ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Creation of database for promising adsorbents for decontamination of radioactive substances from nuclear power plants

(PhysOrg.com) -- NIMS is collecting basic data on natural minerals produced in various regions and inorganic materials with different chemical compositions as a tool for selecting suitable materials, and will make this information ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cockroach 'let's hook up' chemical signal could benefit endangered woodpecker

A North Carolina State University discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal -- a "Let's hook up" sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nitrogen from humans pollutes remote lakes for more than a century

Nitrogen derived from human activities has polluted lakes throughout the Northern Hemisphere for more than a century and the fingerprint of these changes is evident even in remote lakes located thousands of ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

'Magnetic tongue' ready to help produce tastier processed foods

The "electronic nose," which detects odors, has a companion among emerging futuristic "e-sensing" devices intended to replace abilities that once were strictly human-and-animal-only. It is a "magnetic tongue" ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Oct 26, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Sunlight changes aerosols in clouds

(PhysOrg.com) -- Today's climate models regard organic aerosols as static carbon-based molecules, but scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine showed that ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

NEEM ice core drilling in Greenland provides comprehensive new results

The drilling through the ice sheet at NEEM (77 N, 51V) was completed in August and now scientists can begin to review whether the drilling was a success. 14 nations participated in the scientific work at NEEM, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 07, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

First comet found with ocean-like water: New clues to creation of Earth's oceans

(PhysOrg.com) -- New evidence supports the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans, which scientists believe formed about 8 million years after the planet itself.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 120 | with audio podcast

Puzzling comet composition solved?

For years comets have mystified scientists with their compositions that appear to have formed in both warm and cold environments, rather than in one location of a uniform temperature. But new research shows ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

MESSENGER data paints new picture of Mercury's magnetic field

A University of British Columbia geophysicist is part of a NASA mission that is analyzing the first sets of data being collected by MESSENGER as it orbits Mercury. The spacecraft is capturing new evidence that challenges ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 5

Saturn's moon Enceladus spreads its influence

(PhysOrg.com) -- Chalk up one more feat for Saturn's intriguing moon Enceladus. The small, dynamic moon spews out dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice -- first seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

BP oil not degrading on Gulf floor, study says

(AP) -- Tar balls washed onto Gulf of Mexico beaches by Tropical Storm Lee earlier this month show that oil left over from last year's BP spill isn't breaking down as quickly as some scientists thought it would, university ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 3

Antibacterial effect of phenolic compounds from peat moss and the polysaccharide chitosan

The polysaccharide (sugar substance) chitosan has a documented antibacterial effect. Hilde Mellegard's doctoral research shows that this antibacterial activity varies according to the chemical composition ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Plants create water reserve in soil

It has long been known that roots alter the soil in their immediate vicinity, where other microorganisms live and the chemical composition is altered compared to that further away from the roots. An international ...

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Empirical formula

In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is a simple expression of the relative numbers of each type of atom in it, or the simplest whole number ratio of atoms of each element present in a compound. An empirical formula makes no reference to isomerism, structure, or absolute number of atoms. The empirical formula is used as standard for most ionic compounds, such as CaCl2, and for macromolecules, such as SiO2. The term empirical refers to the process of elemental analysis, a technique of analytical chemistry used to determine the relative amounts of each element in a chemical compound.

In contrast, the molecular formula identifies a numbers of each type of atom in a molecule, and the structural formula also shows the structure of the molecule.

For example, the chemical compound n-hexane has the structural formula CH3CH2CH2CH2CH2CH3, which shows that it has 6 carbon atoms arranged in a straight chain, and 14 hydrogen atoms. Hexane's molecular formula is C6H14, and its empirical formula is C3H7, showing a C:H ratio of 3:7. Different compounds can have the same empirical formula. For example, glucose, formaldehyde and acetic acid have the same empirical formula, CH2O. This is the actual chemical formula for formaldehyde, but acetic acid has double the number of atoms and glucose has six times the number of atoms.

For more information about Empirical formula, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.