During a lab, you heat 1.62 g of a cocl2 hydrate over a bunsen burner. after heating, the final mass of the dehydrated compound is 0.88 g. determine the formula of the hydrate and also give the full name of the hydrate. show all your work for the calculations for full credit.

Let the number of moles of water in the required formula be "y".
The final formula should be in the form of : CoCl2 yH2O
1.62 g is the weight of CoCl2 and water in the sample
After heating, the remaining mass represents  the mass the salt only
mass of water in sample = 1.62 - 0.88 = 0.74 g

From the periodic table:
molar mass of cobalt is 59 g
molar mass of chlorine is 35.5
molar mass of hydrogen is 1
molar mass of oxygen is 16

molar mass of formula = 59 + 2(35.5) + 18y = 130 + 18y g
Now we have calculate the mass/molar mass for each part of the formula (salt and water) and equate them to get number of moles of water as follows:
0.88 / 130 = 0.74 / y18 
y = 6.07 which is approximately 6 moles

Thus, the final formula is CoCl2 6H2O. This hydrate is called cobalt(II)chloride hexahydrate.