How do you find the empirical formula from combustion data?

You find the empirical formula from combustion data by determining the moles of each element and simplifying the ratio.

To find the empirical formula from combustion data, you first need to understand what combustion data is. Combustion data refers to the amounts of carbon dioxide and water produced when a compound is completely burned in excess oxygen. This data can be used to determine the empirical formula of the compound, which is the simplest whole number ratio of atoms in a compound.

The first step in finding the empirical formula is to determine the number of moles of each element in the compound. This can be done by using the molar masses of the elements and the masses of carbon dioxide and water produced in the combustion reaction. For example, if you know the mass of carbon dioxide produced, you can calculate the number of moles of carbon in the compound by dividing the mass of carbon dioxide by the molar mass of carbon dioxide and then multiplying by the number of carbon atoms in a molecule of carbon dioxide.

Once you have the number of moles of each element, you can then find the simplest whole number ratio of these elements. This is done by dividing each number of moles by the smallest number of moles calculated. If the resulting numbers are not whole numbers, they may need to be multiplied by a factor to make them whole. The resulting whole numbers are the subscripts in the empirical formula.

Remember, the empirical formula does not necessarily represent the actual number of atoms in a molecule of the compound, but rather the simplest ratio of atoms. For example, the empirical formula of hydrogen peroxide is HO, even though a molecule of hydrogen peroxide actually contains two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms.