Question

How many oxygen atoms are in 68.8mg Na₂S₂O₃ 5H₂O

Answer 1

It should be 8 O atoms. 3O atoms in Na2S2O3 and 5O atom in 5H2O.  The reason there are 5 O atoms are because the 5 in front of H2O means you multiply each atom in the compound by that number (like the distributive property). The H2 molecule becomes 10 Hydrogen atoms (5*2) and the Oxygen becomes 5 Oxygen atoms (5*1). Then you add the 5O atoms to the 3O atoms which equals 8