Question

Combustion of 6.4 of ethylene glycol gives 9.0of CO2 and 6.0 g of H2O this molecular mass of enthylene glycol is 62 find empirical formula

Answer 1

Answer:

The empirical formula is the simplest whole number ratio defining constituent atoms in a species (this is glib, I think I learned this definition when I was 15, and it has stuck!). Given this, the molecular formula is clearly not the empirical formula (why not?), but is a multiple of the empirical formula.

So the empirical formula of ethylene glycol is

CH3O

; this is the ratio of carbons to hydrogen to oxygen we would find if we tried to determine the composition of the stuff by experiment (i.e. empirically).

:)