Answer:
The empirical formula of the compound is .
Explanation:
We need to determine the empirical formula in its simplest form, where hydrogen () is scaled up to a mole, since it has the molar mass, and both carbon () and oxygen () are also scaled up in the same magnitude. The empirical formula is of the form:
Where , are the number of moles of the carbon and oxygen, respectively.
The scale factor (), no unit, is calculated by the following formula:
(1)
Where:
- Mass of hydrogen, in grams.
- Molar mass of hydrogen, in grams per mole.
If we know that and , then the scale factor is:
The molar masses of carbon () and oxygen () are and , then, the respective numbers of moles are: (, , )
Carbon
(2)
Oxygen
(3)
Hence, the empirical formula of the compound is .