Question

The empirical formula for a compound that contains 89.3% potassium and 10.7% nitrogen is:

Answer 1

`K_3N`

Step-by-step explanation:

Here, we want to get the empirical formula of the compound with the given data

We start by dividing the given percentages by the atomic masses of the given elements

The atomic mass of Potassium is 39 amu

The atomic mass of Nitrogen is 14 amu

Proceeding with this, we have it that:

`\begin{gathered} K\text{ = }(89.3)/(39)\text{ = 2.2897436} \\ \\ N\text{ = }(10.7)/(14)\text{ = 0.7642857} \end{gathered}`

From here, we have to divide each of the values by the smaller value from the above division

We have that as:

`\begin{gathered} K\text{ = }(2.2897436)/(0.7642857)\text{ = 3} \\ \\ N\text{ = }(0.7642587)/(0.7642587)\text{ =1 } \end{gathered}`

Thus, we have the empirical formula of the compound as:

`K_3N`