Question

What is the empirical formula of the compound if magnesium is 60.9 and oxygen is 39.1?

Answer 1

Would it not not be `MgO`...?

Explanation:

Wit all these problems it is useful to ASSUME an `100*g` mass of compound and interrogate its molar composition with respect to the constituent element...

You gots `"moles of metal"=(60.9*g)/(24.31*g*mol^-1)=2.51*mol`

And `"moles of oxygen"=(39.1*g)/(16.00*g*mol^-1)=2.44*mol`

And thus there are EQUAL quantities of metal and oxygen to a first approx...the empirical formula is `MgO` as we would have anticipated....