Acompound that contains only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen is 48.64% c and 8.16% h by mass. what is the empirical formula of this substance? 84. the most common form

The empirical formula of this substance is:

Explanation:

To find the empirical formula of this substance we need the molecular weight of the elements Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen, we can find this information in the periodic table:

- C: 12.01 g/mol

- H: 1.00 g/mol

- O: 15.99 g/mol

With the information in this exercise we can suppose in 100 g of the substance we have:

C: 48.64 g

H: 8.16 g

O: 43.2 g (100 g - 48.64g - 8.16g= 43.2 g)

Now, we need to divide these grams by the molecular weight:

We need to divide these results by the minor result, in this case O=2.70 mol

We need to find integer numbers to find the empirical formula, for this reason we multiply by 2:

This numbers are very close to integer numbers, so we can find the empirical formula as  subscripts in the chemical formula: