Chemistry in Canvas

*Note: Various aspects of chemistry will require additional modifications. Tactile graphics, long descriptions, and specific accommodations may be required to modify the course curriculum.

Writing Chemical Formulas

You can use the advanced view in the equation editor to write chemical formulas. For formula writing,
use _ (underscore) for subscripts and ^ (carat) for superscripts. If there is more than one character in the
subscript or superscript, wrap the characters with braces { }. If you’d like your chemical formulas without
the italics, use advanced view and \text{ } to enclose the elements.

Formulas in Advanced View
Formula	How to type in Advanced View
$C_6H_6$	`C_6H_6`
$\text{C}_6\text{H}_6$	`\text{C}_6\text{H}_6`
$SO_4^{2-}$	`SO_4^{2-}`
$\text{SO}_4^{2-}$	`\text{SO}_4^{2-}`
$Al_3(SO_4)_2$	`Al_3(SO_4)_2`
$\text{Al}_3(\text{SO}_4)_2$	`\text{Al}_3(\text{SO}_4)_2`

Writing Scientific Notation

There are two ways to write the times symbol: \times and \cdot. Use ^ for exponents. If the exponent
contains more than one character, place the exponent text in braces { }. Use \text{ } wrapped around
units to remove the italicization. Use \space to place space between numbers and units.

Formulas in Advanced View
Scientific Notation	How to type in advanced view
$5.10\times10^{-3}\space\text{mol}$	`5.10\times10^{-3}\space\text{mol}`
$6.02\cdot10^{23}\space\text{atoms}$	`6.02\cdot10^{23}\space\text{atoms}`

Writing Chemical Equations

To write chemical equations, you’ll need to use a variety of reaction arrows. Here’s a shortlist of arrows
that can be used in the advanced view of the equation editor.

Arrows in Advanced View
Arrow	Latex Code
$\longrightarrow$	`\longrightarrow`
$\longleftarrow$	`\longleftarrow`
$\xrightarrow{text}$	`\xrightarrow{text}`
$\xleftarrow{text}$	`\xleftarrow{text}`
$\leftrightharpoons$	`\leftrightharpoons`
$\rightleftharpoons$	`\rightleftharpoons`
$\rightleftarrows$	`\rightleftarrows`
$\leftrightarrows$	`\leftrightarrows`

Using the advanced view, we can write equations like the following examples. You may wish to use
\space to provide space between quantities and chemical formulas. If you want to remove the italicized
elements, it is usually easier to write the formula first, and then go through and insert \text{ } around all
the elements in the formula.

Formulas in Advanced View
Scientific Notation	How to Type in Advanced View
$CH_4+2O_2\longrightarrow CO_2+2H_2O$	`CH_4+2O_2\longrightarrow CO_2+2H_2O`
$\text{CH}_4+2\text{O}_2\longrightarrow \text{CO}_2+2\text{H}_2\text{O}$	`\text{CH}_4+2\text{O}_2\longrightarrow` `\text{CO}_2+2\text{H}_2\text{O}`
$2 H_2O_2\space(aq)\xrightarrow{Pt} 2 H_2O\space(l)+O_2\space(g)$	`2 H_2O_2\space(aq)\xrightarrow{Pt}` `2 H_2O\space(l)+O_2\space(g)`
$2\space\text{H}_2\text{O}_2\space(aq) \xrightarrow{\text{Pt}} 2\space\text{H}_2\text{O}\space(l)+ \text{O}_2\space(g)$	`2\space\text{H}_2\text{O}_2\space(aq)` `\xrightarrow{\text{Pt}}` `2\space\text{H}_2\text{O}\space(l)+` `\text{O}_2\space(g)`