Final answer:
To find the percent yield, calculate the moles of reactants, determine the limiting reactant, compute the theoretical yield of ethyl salicylate, and then divide the actual yield by the theoretical yield and multiply by 100.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the percent yield of ethyl salicylate synthesized from the reaction of ethanol, salicylic acid, and sulfuric acid, we need to use the provided molecular weights and densities to find the amount of each reactant in moles, determine the limiting reactant, and then compute the theoretical yield based on stoichiometry. Using the given molecular weight of salicylic acid (138.12 g/mol) and ethanol (46.069 g/mol), we can calculate the moles of salicylic acid (5.052 g / 138.12 g/mol) and convert the volume of ethanol (1.5 mL) to mass using the density (0.789 g/mL), and then to moles. After we identify the limiting reactant, we use stoichiometry to find the theoretical yield of ethyl salicylate and then divide the actual yield (0.812 g) by the theoretical yield and multiply by 100 to get the percent yield.
The molecular weight of sulfuric acid is not directly needed in this yield calculation. The molarity of sulfuric acid might be relevant if we were calculating the exact stoichiometry, but for the purposes of this question, it seems to be extraneous information.