A combination of chemical symbols and numbers to represent a substance is a

• A. Molecular Formula
• B. Bond Energy
• C. Chemical Formula
• D. Electron-Dot Notation

Answer: (C)

Representing a substance by using element symbols with numbers to show how many atoms of each element are present is a chemical formula. The symbols indicate which elements are in the substance, and the subscripts show how many atoms of each element exist—for example, H2O has two hydrogens and one oxygen. This category includes variations like the molecular formula, which tells the exact counts in a molecule, and the empirical formula, which gives the simplest whole-number ratio. Other notation systems serve different purposes: bond energy is a measure of the energy needed to break bonds, not a way to denote composition; electron-dot notation (Lewis structures) shows valence electrons and bonding patterns, not the overall counts of atoms in a substance. Therefore, the term that describes a combination of chemical symbols and numbers representing a substance is chemical formula.