in chemical form what do subscripts tell you
Counting Atoms in Chemical Formulas 3C12H22O11 represents 3 molecules of sucrose (table sugar). The numbers that appear in front of the symbols and formulas above are called coefficients. The coefficients tell us the number of atoms (for chemical symbols) or molecules (for molecular formulas) that we are dealing with. The small numbers that appear somewhat below the chemical symbols within chemical formulas are called subscripts. The subscripts tell us how many atoms of each element are in the molecule. For both coefficients and subscripts, we generally don't write their value when it is equal to 1, because a 1 is understood if no coefficient or subscript is written.