BORING EDUCATION — LIVE EXPERIMENTProduct is live. Experiments are running. Feedback is being collected. Improvements are underway.Welcome to Boring Education. We're glad you're here while we're figuring out how to make learning better.
BORINGEDUCATION

1.4Free

Empirical and molecular formulas: from lab percentages to a formula

Your guide: Miss SanaCounts atoms the way you count rupees: carefully.

The problem

A lab breaks a compound into its elements and reports: 60.26 % carbon, 11.11 % hydrogen, 28.62 % oxygen. Useful? Not yet. Your paper wants a formula, not a list of percentages.

Think of biryani. The caterer's pot for 60 guests and your ammi's pot for 6 use the same ratio of rice to meat. The ratio is one thing; the size of the pot is another.

Chemistry has the same two numbers. The ratio of atoms is the empirical formula. The real size of one molecule is the molecular formula.

The empirical formula is the simplest whole-number ratio of atoms in a compound. The molecular formula gives the actual number of atoms in one molecule. Molecular formula = n × empirical formula, where n = molecular mass ÷ empirical formula mass.

Step 1 / 7