Question

What is the correct formula of a compound that has ten oxygen atoms and four phosphorus atoms?

Answer 1

`"P"_4"O"_10`

Explanation:

The number of atoms of each element in the compound is represented by subscripts following the symbol of each element.

Therefore, we can write a compound with `color(red)(4` atoms of `sfcolor(red)("phosphorus"` and `color(blue)(10` atoms of `sfcolor(blue)("oxygen"` as

`color(red)("P"_4)color(blue)("O"_10)`

(`"P"` is the symbol for phosphorus, and `"O"` is the symbol for oxygen.)