[Medicine is searching for a new structural balance]

A chemical formula presents information about the proportions of atoms constituting a particular chemical compound or molecule, mainly using symbols of elements and numbers. At times other symbols, such as dashes, parentheses, brackets, commas, plus, and minus signs, are also used. A chemical formula can be one of three types – molecular, empirical, and structural.

Molecules have characteristic shapes that are crucial for their function. The arrangement of various electron groups around the central atom dictates their molecular geometry. Electron pairs in the valence shell of a central atom will adopt an arrangement that minimizes repulsions between the electron pairs by maximizing the distance between them. The valence electrons form either bonding pairs, located primarily between bonded atoms, or lone pairs.
Two regions of electron density in a diatomic...

According to the theory of resonance, if two or more Lewis structures with the same arrangement of atoms can be written for a molecule, ion, or radical, the actual distribution of electrons is an average of that shown by the various Lewis structures.
Resonance Structures and Resonance Hybrids
The Lewis structure of a nitrite anion (NO2−) may actually be drawn in two different ways, distinguished by the locations of the N–O and N=O bonds.

Formula Mass of Covalent Compounds

In some cases, there are seemingly more than one valid Lewis structures for molecules and polyatomic ions. The concept of formal charges can be used to help predict the most appropriate Lewis structure when more than one reasonable structure exists.

The elemental makeup of a compound defines its chemical identity, and chemical formulas are the most concise way of representing this elemental makeup. When a compound’s formula is unknown, measuring the mass of its constituent elements is often the first step in determining the formula experimentally.