Question

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is water soluble and cannot be produced by the human body. Each day, a person’s diet should include a source of vitamin C, such as orange juice. Ascorbic acid has a molecular formula of C6H8O6 and a gram-formula mass of 176 grams per mole. Which formula represents the empirical formula for ascorbic acid?

Answer 1

The empirical formula of asorbic acid would be $C^{3} H^{4} O^{3}$ for this problem. What you end up doing is determining the simplest whole number ration by dividing by the smallest molar amount. If you need help with this kind of problem chemwiki has great examples. ( http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Textbook_Maps/General_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Map%3A_Chemistry%3A_The_Ce...)