this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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Science Memes

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[โ€“] otter@lemmy.ca 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_formula

In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest whole number ratio of atoms present in a compound

In this comic, the "compound" is the entire observable universe. So it's the simplest whole number ratio of every atom in the observable universe

A more in depth explanation for this comic (and all other xkcd comics) is here: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3200:_Chemical_Formula

[โ€“] thedaylights@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Add to this, the subscripts are raised to exponents. I have never seen that before in a chemical formula, so it took me a while to figure out what those numbers were.