Final answer:
Heating a hydrate to remove X results in Y, where X represents waters of hydration and Y is an anhydrous salt. The correct answer is a) Water, an anhydrous salt.
Step-by-step explanation:
When you use heat to remove X from a hydrate to obtain Y, X is the waters of hydration, which are the loosely bound water molecules in hydrate compounds. The process of heating leaves behind Y, which is an anhydrous salt, a compound without its water of hydration. Therefore, the answer to what X and Y represent is a) Water, an anhydrous salt. It's important to note that during this process oxygen is not removed from the compound; instead, water molecules are removed, leading to the anhydrous (meaning "not hydrated") form of the salt.