Answer:
Empirical formula: CH₂
Explanation:
We need to find the empirical formula of a compound that has carbon and hydrogen.
To find the empirical formula of any compound, if we have the mass or mass percent, we should follow 3 steps:
1. Calculate the moles, dividing by the atomic weight.
The atomic weight for carbon and hydrogen are 12 g/mol and 1 g/mol, so, doing the division we have:
C = 85.5 / 12 = 7.125
H = 14.3 / 1 = 14.3
2. Determine the number of atoms of each element in the formula
To do this, we just divide the previous moles by the lowest quantity we obtain. In this case, the carbon:
C = 7,125 / 7,125 = 1
H = 14,3 / 7,125 = 2
This means we have 1 atom of carbon and 2 atoms of hydrogen.
3. Write the empirical formula with the previously obtained atoms
Now that we obtained the atoms of each element, we just write the empirical formula with these numbers:
C₁H₂ but we can neglect the number one so:
Hope this helps