Empirical Compound Experiment

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Empirical Formula of a Compound Experiment 5 Anderson North John Corbin General Chemistry I Lab Wednesday Night 10/21/09 1) Introduction a) The purpose of this experiment involving empirical formulas of a compound is to determine the empirical formula of magnesium oxide and the percent yield in this quantitative experiment1. Even though magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the eighth richest metal in the universe and seventh most common element in the crust of the earth, it is not found freely in nature4. Magnesium, when combined with oxygen at elevated temperatures, burns into a bright white flame to produce magnesium oxide4. Also referred to as magnesia, magnesium oxide is the second largest compound found in…show more content…
The first example is calculating empirical formulas from percent compositions using the percents of the different elements. Empirical formulas of compounds are also determined through quantitative analysis by using the masses of each element in the equation3. Lastly, this experiment uses the method of finding empirical formulas through combustion analysis. The empirical formula of magnesium oxide is found from the combustion of magnesium1. The four chemical equations that result when metal magnesium is heated in a closed crucible that becomes gradually exposed to the oxygen in the air are shown in table…show more content…
The mass of the oxygen is resulted from the difference between the masses of product oxide and limiting reagent. In equation 1, the mass of limiting reagent magnesium is found. The mass of the oxide product is determined using equation 2. In equation 3, the amount of oxygen in magnesium oxide is found using the weights of the results found in equation 1 and 2. The mass of the oxygen in the oxide product will represent how much added weight was gained in the reaction. Once the masses are calculated, several calculations involve forming the empirical formula. In equation 4, the metal and oxygen masses are converted to moles. In equation 5, the simplest ratio is needed to determine the molar ratio that represents the subscripts in the equation. The resulting ratio from equation 5 is then applied to form the empirical formula and a balanced

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