Question

How do you find the empirical formula of magnesium oxide, when magnesium ribbon is burned in a crucible...and a `0.91*g` of material is present?

Answer 1

There are insufficient data here...........

Explanation:

We need (i) the tare mass of the crucible;

(ii) the mass of the crucible and the magnesium metal BEFORE the reaction;

(iii) the mass of the crucible and the resultant magnesium oxide AFTER the rxn.

We interrogate the reaction:

`Mg(s) + 1/2O_2(g) rarr MgO`

And thus we need the mass of the metal, and the mass of the metal oxide. Do you have `0.91*g` of metal or `0.91*g` of metal oxide? We need BOTH masses to work out the stoichiometry.