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What are subscripts used for in writing chemical equations?

Answer 1

Owen Ambrose

The subscripts are used to determine the amount of atoms in a molecule.

For example, CO2 indicates that there are two atoms of oxygen for every carbon atom.

Likewise, NH3 indicates that for every nitrogen atom, there are three hydrogen atoms.

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Answer 2

Henry Antrim

Chemical equations use subscripts to show the ratio of atoms in a chemical compound or molecule and the number of atoms of each element present in the molecule or compound.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.