November 16th Class

On November 16th we learned about empirical formula's and how to find them.

Empirical Formula's
- give the whole number of ratio's of elements in a compound while molecular formula's give the actual number.

After learning what empirical formula's are we learned how to find them.

Finding Empirical Formula's

Example:
A sample of an unknown compound is analyzed and found to contain 8.4 g of carbon 2.1 g of hydrogen and 5.6 g of oxygen.

* The easiest way to answer this question is to organize the information that is given into a chart format.


C2H6O

If the ratio ends in a decimal of... 0.5 then multiply by 2.
If the ratio ends in a decimal of... 0.33 or 0.66 then multiply by 3.
If the ratio ends in a deciaml of... 0.25 or 0.75 then multiply by 4.
If the ratio ends in a decimal of... 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 then multiply by 5.