Step 1: Understand that ethylene is a type of hydrocarbon, which means it is made up of hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) atoms.
Step 2: Identify that ethylene is specifically an alkene, which is a category of hydrocarbons that contain at least one double bond between carbon atoms.
Step 3: Determine the number of carbon atoms in ethylene. Ethylene has 2 carbon atoms.
Step 4: Count the number of hydrogen atoms. For each carbon atom in an alkene, there are typically 2 hydrogen atoms plus 2 additional hydrogen atoms for the double bond. Therefore, for 2 carbon atoms, the total is 4 hydrogen atoms.
Step 5: Combine the number of carbon and hydrogen atoms to write the molecular formula. The formula is C2H4, meaning there are 2 carbon atoms and 4 hydrogen atoms.
