Problem: how many grams of oxygen combined with 15 grams of nitrogen are in the compund N2O?
Please explain how to solve.
Write the equation and balance it.
Convert 15 g nitrogen to moles. moles = grams/molar mass
Using the coefficients in the balanced equation, convert moles nitrogen to moles oxygen.
Now convert moles oxygen to grams. grams = moles x molar mass.
To solve this problem, we need to determine the molar mass of N2O and then calculate the amount of oxygen it contains.
1. Determine the molar mass of N2O:
- Molar mass of nitrogen (N) = 14.01 g/mol
- Molar mass of oxygen (O) = 16.00 g/mol
- N2O contains two nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
- Molar mass of N2O = (2 * molar mass of nitrogen) + (1 * molar mass of oxygen)
= (2 * 14.01 g/mol) + (1 * 16.00 g/mol)
= 28.02 g/mol + 16.00 g/mol
= 44.02 g/mol
2. Calculate the grams of oxygen in N2O:
- We know that N2O is composed of 15 grams of nitrogen and some amount of oxygen.
- Since N2O has a molar mass of 44.02 g/mol, we can calculate the amount of oxygen using a proportion based on the molar ratio.
- The molar ratio between oxygen and N2O is 1:1 (one oxygen atom per one N2O molecule).
- Grams of oxygen = (grams of N2O * molar mass of oxygen) / molar mass of N2O
= (15 g * 16.00 g/mol) / 44.02 g/mol
= (240 g/mol) / 44.02 g/mol
= 5.45 g
Therefore, the compound N2O contains 5.45 grams of oxygen.