[Brain(aq)]

I apologize in advance for my ignorance ...trying to self-teach myself chemistry....anyway, here it goes:

If solid mercury (II) oxide is written HgO, then why is the balanced equation 2HgO  2Hg + O₂ ?
Why cant it just be HgO  Hg + O...is it because oxygen is diatomic?  HgO has a single atom of each in the compound correct?

[chenbeier]

Correctly Oxygen exist mostly as O₂. So if it will be used in an chemical equation, it has to be balanced accordingly.