How can empirical and molecular formulas be the same?

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How can empirical and molecular formulas be the same?

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Answer 1 · 2016-05-02T15:44:58

The molecular formula is always a multiple of the empirical formula.

Explanation:

From the above, $Molecular formula = (Empirical formula) \times n$ $"Molecular formula"=("Empirical formula")xxn$ .

Of course, the multiple, $n$ $n$ , may be ONE. Non-molecular compounds, typically ionic compounds, have common empirical and molecular formulae (of course ionic species are non-molecular).

There are even some molecular species whose empirical formulae would be the same as the molecular formulae. The ones I can think off hand are $C H_{4}$ $CH_4$ , $N O$ $NO$ , $N O_{2}$ $NO_2$ , $N_{2} O$ $N_2O$ , $N_{2} O_{5}$ $N_2O_5$ , $C O_{2}$ $CO_2$ , $C O$ $CO$ , and $H_{2} O$ $H_2O$ . There are possibly lots of other examples.

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How can empirical and molecular formulas be the same?

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