The label on an Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry drink lists 30 g of sugar in 240 mL of drink. I weighed 240 mL of drink and found its mass to be 251 g. What is the percent composition of sugar in the drink?

1 Answer
Mar 3, 2017

"12% sugar"

Explanation:

We use percent composition as a measure of how many grams of a given substance are present in exactly "100 g" of a compound or a mixture.

In this case, the percent composition of sugar in the beverage will tell you how many grams of sugar you get for every "100 g" of beverage.

Now, you know that you have "30 g" of sugar in "251 g" of beverage. This is the known composition of the drink. You can use this composition to determine the mass of sugar present in "100 g" of beverage.

100 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g drink"))) * "30 g sugar"/(251color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g drink")))) = "11.95 g sugar"

This means that the percent composition of sugar in the drink will be

color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("% sugar = 12%")))

I'll leave the answer rounded to two sig figs, but keep in mind that you only have one significant figure for the mass of sugar.