You have a compound that contains .816 moles of element X, .821 moles of element Y, and 1.61 moles of element Z. What is its empirical formula?

Question

They are not real elements. They are random letters and numbers to be calculated out.

Answer 1

You know the mole ratio of x:y:z is 0.816:0.821:1.61

Divide each of those numbers by the smallest, 0.816, to get 1.000:1.006:1.973 ≈1:1:2

 

So, the empirical formula for this ratio is XYZ₂