What is the formula of magnesium oxide?

1 Answer
anor277
Oct 10, 2016

I think you will have to give us a bit of context here.

Explanation:

Are you trying to determine the formula of magnesium oxide from first principles? Given that it is a binary compound, we predict a formula of #Mg_(x)O_y#. Of course, we know that magnesium oxide has a formula of #MgO#, (i.e. #x=y=1#), but the experiment that established this formulation would not be straightforward.

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