Calculating Moles from Given Mass: Where Did I Go Wrong?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JEscribir
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Stoichiometry
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
7 replies · 6K views
JEscribir
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Can someone show me how to calculate the number of moles of a given compound's molecules when given the mass in grams of the compund sample?

I am kind of confused by this because at first I thought it just asked for me to convert the grams into moles, but that isn't exactly what is being asked.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The actual problem that I don't understand says " how many moles of C2H3Cl3O2 molecules are in 100.0 g chloral hydrate (C2H3Cl3O2)?"

So that's to four sig figs and chloral hydrate has a molar mass of about 165.4 g/mol. I divided 100.0g / 165.4 g per mol to get about .6064 moles, but I'm getting that, it is incorrect.
So did I do something wrong or is it a mistake by the teacher?
 
Did you calculated the molar mass of [tex]C_2H_3Cl_3O_2[/tex] or it was given by your teacher? Anyway, the molar mass of [tex]C_2H_3Cl_3O_2[/tex] is 165.403 g.mol-1 which is the value you got.
Then, the number of moles is 0.6046.Honestly, I do not see anything wrong in what you have done. You should ask your teacher to revise this exercise.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah I emailed my teacher because I was freaking out since I could have sworn I did it right.

Other people have already finished the assignment and no one has pointed out the supposed mistake to be revised that is why I am so skeptical.
 
what do you mean by solution?
 
You say that you are incorrect. Then, you should know the correct answer. That's what I am asking. Which is the correct answer to this problem?
 
JEscribir said:
So that's to four sig figs and chloral hydrate has a molar mass of about 165.4 g/mol. I divided 100.0g / 165.4 g per mol to get about .6064 moles, but I'm getting that, it is incorrect.
So did I do something wrong or is it a mistake by the teacher?
I too get that as my answer.