Identify Elements from Simple Chemical Formulae

Every element in the periodic table has its own unique chemical symbol. It's how we know which element is which. No two are the same.

As you can see, some elements have just one letter as their chemical symbol, and some have two.

For example, oxygen has the chemical symbol O and lithium has the chemical symbol Li.

So, you know that two or more elements can join together to form a compound, right? Well, each compound has a name and also a unique chemical formula. 

The chemical formula tells us what elements make up the compound, and also how many atoms of each element are in that compound. 

LiBr

For example, if we take a look at the compound above with the chemical formula LiBr, we can tell quite a lot about the compound.

We can tell that it is made up of lithium (Li) and bromine (Br).

If we want to know a little more about the compound's structure, we can also tell that there is one atom of lithium for every atom of bromine. 

Let's have a look at some common compounds and try some questions.