Question

A student makes a compound of sulfur and oxygen. She uses 5.00 g of sulfur and 4.99 g of oxygen, and all of the elemental substances are completely used up. What is the percent sulfur in the compound?

Answer 1

First, we apply the law of conservation of mass which states that the total mass in a system remains constant.
Therefore, there must be 5.00 g of sulfur and 4.99 g of oxygen in the product. Now, we determine the mass percentage using:

Mass % = (mass of sulfur x 100) / total mass of compound

Mass % = (5 * 100) / (5 + 4.99)

Mass % = 50.05%

The product contains 50.05% sulfur by mass.