#color(white)(mll)"Si"color(white)(ll) +color(white)(ll) "H"_2 color(white)(l)→color(white)(l) ("Si, H")#
#"45.8 mg"color(white)(m) xcolor(white)(l) "mg"color(white)(mm) "50.7 mg"#
#"Mass of H" = xcolor(white)(l) "mg" = "mass of (Si, H) – mass of Si"#
#"= 50.7 mg – 45.8 mg = 4.9 mg"#
Our job is to calculate the ratio of the moles of each element.
#"Moles of Si " = 45.8color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mg Si"))) × "1 mmol Si"/(28.08 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mg Si")))) = "1.631 mmol Si"#
#"Moles of H" = 4.9 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mg H"))) × "1 mmol H"/(1.008 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mg H")))) = "4.86 mmol H"#
To get the molar ratio, we divide each number of moles by the smallest number
(#"1.631"#).
From here on, I like to summarize the calculations in a table.
#"Element"color(white)(X) "Mass/mg"color(white)(X) "mmol"color(white)(Xll) "Ratio"color(white)(mll)"Integers"#
#stackrel(—————————————————-——)(color(white)(m)"Si" color(white)(XXXm)45.8 color(white)(Xmm)"1.631"
color(white)(Xm)1color(white)(Xmmmm)1#
#color(white)(m)"H" color(white)(XXXXll)4.9 color(white)(mmm)"4.86" color(white)(Xmll)2.98 color(white)(XXXl)3#
The empirical formula is #"SiH"_3#.
