Determine the empirical formula of a compound containing 40.6 grams of carbon, 5.1 grams of hydrogen, and 54.2 grams of oxygen. In an experiment, the molar mass of the compound was determined to be 118.084 g/mol. What is the molecular formula of the compound?
For both questions, show your work or explain how you determined the formulas by giving specific values used in calculations. (10 points)

Empirical:

Molecular:

Explanation:

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In this case, since we know the mass of each element in the compound, in order to identify its empirical formula, at first, we compute the moles of each element by using their atomic masses:

Next, we divide the moles of each element by the moles of carbon as it is in the least proportion, in order to compute their subscripts in the empirical formula:

However, we need to multiply each subscript by two in order to obtain the least whole number for the empirical formula:

Next, in order to identify the molecular formula, we first compute the molar mass of the empirical formula:

Thus, the ratio between the molecular formula and the empirical is:

It means that the molecular formula is twice the empirical one, therefore we obtain:

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