Question

The chemical formula of a compound does not represent
A.The total number of atoms in a molecule of the compound
B.The number of various atoms in one molecule of the compound
C.The state of the molecules of the compound
D.The composition of a molecule of the compound

Answer 1

Hint: A chemical formula gives an idea about the number of atoms of each element present in a compound. It consists of the symbols of the atoms of the elements present in the compound and also gives information about the number of each element, in the form of subscripts.

Complete step by step answer:
Before answering this question, we need to understand what a chemical compound and chemical formulae is.
A chemical compound can be defined as a chemical substance composed of two or more elements, which are chemically bound together in a fixed ratio.
Compounds can be represented by their unique chemical formula. A chemical formula is a symbolic representation of compounds that shows the proportions of atoms present in a particular chemical compound.
Let us take an example of sodium chloride, whose chemical formula is $NaCl$ . It is commonly known as common salt. Clearly from the chemical formula, it is visible that one atom of sodium and one atom of chlorine have combined to form one molecule of $NaCl$. The state of the molecules of $NaCl$ is not clear from this chemical formula.
Let us take another example of a water molecule, having the chemical formula $H2O$ . From this chemical formula, we can say that 2 atoms of hydrogen have combined with 1 atom of oxygen to give $H2O$ molecule. We cannot say anything about its state, whether it is in solid, liquid or gaseous state.
So, the correct option is C.

Note:
Chemical formulas of compounds do not tell anything about how the atoms are arranged in the given molecule.