Question

A compound is 2% H, 32.7% S, and 65.3% O by mass. What is the subscript on the O in the empirical formula for this compound?

Answer 1

Since all of those percents add up to 100, you can just directly convert that to grams. So now you can use 2 grams H, 32.7 grams S, and 65.3 grams O. Use that info and convert that to moles for an answer of 2mol H, 1mol S, and 4mol O. In every empirical question you need to divide each quantity of moles by the lowest number. In this case, that number is one, so they stay the same, but it's important to remember that step. You're final chemical formula would be H2SO4 and the answer to your question would be that the subscript for oxygen is 4. Hope this helped!