[Topgun]

what do you call a subscript in chemistry? I know what it means but don't now what it's called.
and is there any way to write one in just asci characters? like how you write an exponent is x^2, so how do you write a subscript?

[Al Tarket]

_H²O/_CO² such as that?.

[Snail]

_H²O/_CO² such as that?.

There's no such thing as CO², or H²O. It's CO₂ and H₂O. I really hate it when people do that.

[Jeff Vader]

I really hate it when people do that.

For me it depends on the context. x years ago they were airing an infomercial about some face cream. The trick of the cream, according to the narrator, was that it enriched the oxygen on the skin to O³. And the three was specifically in the superscript. Sounds like one ****ing awesome cream if you ask me.

(Note: the comment above was meant to be a comical interlude. The author of this post knows more than well that proper chemical symbol of oxygen (in its normal, gaseous form) is indeed O₂. If necessary (usually when dealing with ions), the superscript can be used to indicate electronic charges. Those, who didn't know, Infomercials are used to sell **** (both figurative and literate) to dumb people. Products in Infomercials are often stated to do things defied by common sense, and even the laws of nature. Concidering that they claimed this cream to "enrich" oxygen (O₂) to something else (O³) should make anyone, who's even heard of the word "chemistry", lol. Or be intimidated.

Good day.)

[perihelion]

   I just don't even know where to start...

Snail is dead right, Lobo.  More over, there is a specific meaning in chemistry for numerical superscripts versus subscripts.  I very much doubt that any skin cream is capable of not only dissociating oxygen, but also knocking off 3 electrons to give it a net 3e positive charge.  Not only pretty much impossible, if it were possible, expect pretty severe chemical burns.

Yet another cheap marketing gimmick trying the old, "Hey look!  It's really science!  It's cool!" schtick.

[Jeff Vader]

I guess the word "Infomercial" didn't say much to you. You know, they had those other awesome products such as Motor-Up, that could bring the engine of a 60-year-old car back to life, Ab-Tronic and other devices with the prefix "Ab-", that would make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger with little to no effort... the list goes on.

I did take more than one course of chemistry back in high school. And it was included in my previous study program as well. Oh, I'll edit the previous post so that others might notice the sarcastic tone in it.

[Topgun]

hey this is all good, but it doesn't answer my question.

[redsniper]

You can't! AHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

Seriously, I always did my chemistry work in some kind of word processor that allowed subscripts or just left the number the same size as the letters: H2O, CO2, etc.

[colecampbell666]

In MS Word, hilight the letter and right click the number. Go to "Font" and check the"subscript" box.

[Herra Tohtori]

If you had been reading Al Tarket's message carefully enough you may have noticed a way to do it already...

H₂O / CO₂

[colecampbell666]

If you had been reading Al Tarket's message carefully enough you may have noticed a way to do it already...

He wants to do it in MSWord or the equivalent.

[redsniper]

He wants to do it in MSWord or the equivalent.

is there any way to write one in just asci characters?

[Herra Tohtori]

Ah. My bad.

ASCII doesn't support superscript or subscript characters. Unicode does, apparently.

H₂O, CO₂.

[BloodEagle]

No, you can't do it with plain ASCII.

:EDIT:

GAH!! Beat me to it.

[Topgun]

you can do this in ascii: x^2. I want to do the opposite.

[perihelion]

@ Lobo:  [peri feels a bit sheepish]

@Topgun: I think the best you are going to do is like H2SO4 if ascii is all you have to work with.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

If you can use sizing you can cheat and do something like this:

H2O

That 12 point, 6 point, 12 point font.


Also found this:

The following conventions regarding ChEBI formulae are followed:

    * Unless immediately following a dot '.' any numeral refers to the preceding element in the formula. Example: H2O really means there are two oxygen atoms and one oxygen atom.
    * The dot '.' convention is used when dividing a formula into parts. Any numeral following a dot refers to all the elements within that part of the formula that follow it. Example: C2H3O2.Na.3H2O (CHEBI:32138) really means that after C2H3O2 there is one sodium (Na), six hydrogen and three oxygen atoms.
    * Parentheses are used within ChEBI formulae to mean multiplication of elements.
    * The 'n' convention is used to show an unknown quantity by which a formula is multiplied. For example: (C12H20O11)n from CHEBI:15443 really means that a C12H20O11 unit is multiplied by an unknown quantity.
    * A comma can be used to indicate that there is one or more of the elements divided by the comma but that the exact stoichiometry can vary. For instance, actinolite is a mineral with the chemical formula Ca2(Mg,Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2, which means that it could be anything in the continuous series between Ca2Mg5Si8O22(OH)2 and Ca2Fe5Si8O22(OH)2.

[Topgun]

okay, I think that will work.

[Al Tarket]

X² there is an ascii character for the small 2

[Herra Tohtori]

X² there is an ascii character for the small 2

Character(or three of them) equals not superscript/subscript support...

I think there are individual superscripted 1, 2 and 3, but no subscript equivalents and no other numerals.