Question

A pure compound is found to be 40.0% carbon by mass, 6.73% hydrogen by mass, and 53.3% oxygen by mass. determine the empirical formula of the compound. be sure to show your work.

Answer 1

Since there is no weight, I would assume that this is a 100g of pure compound.
Okay so I would be changing the percentage to gram to solve for the mole.
So
40.0g C (1 mol C/12.01 g C) = 3.33 mol C
6.73g H (1 mol H/1.01 g H ) = 6.66 mol H
53.3g O (1 mol O/16.00 g O) = 3.33 mol O

With that, two of our moles is 3.33, so we consider that are our 1, as it is also the lowest. Therefore the empirical formula is CH2O