Molecule formula: C₅H₁₀O₅
Empirical formula: CH₂O
A molecular formula is a formula that gives the total number of atoms of each element in each molecule of a substance.
The compound given in the diagram is C₅H₁₀O₅. This gives its molecular formula since the total number of atoms of each element of the substance is represented.
For the empirical formula, this formula represents the simplest whole-number ratio of elements in a compound.
For the given compound C₅H₁₀O₅, the number of atoms of each element can be divided by a whole number of 5 to give a simplified form of the compound as (CH₂O)₅.
Since the molecular formula is generally written as (Empirical formula)ₙ, compared with the compound above, we can see that the empirical formula is CH₂O