Ideal Gas Mixture Composition Calculation

[Oblivion77]

Homework Statement

A rigid cylinder of 1000cm cubed contains 4.168grams of an ideal gas mixture. The gas mixture consists of methane and ethane at a temperature of 100C and a pressure of 500kPa

a) Estimate the average molar mass of the mixure
b) Calculate the composition of the mixture on a mole fraction basis
c) Express the mixture composition on a mass fraction basis

Homework Equations

PV=nRT

The Attempt at a Solution

I calculated part a) already and found that to be 25.85kg/kmol. I am stuck on part b and c.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Borek]

Express mass of the sample in terms of numbers of moles of each gas.

 

[Oblivion77]

Express mass of the sample in terms of numbers of moles of each gas.

Ok

I got mols of ethane to be 0.14 and mols of methane to be 0.26. Now what? I tried doing
0.14 / (0.14 + 0.26) to get the fraction of ethane but it is wrong.

 

[Borek]

Show how you calculated total number of moles of both gases.

 

[Oblivion77]

Show how you calculated total number of moles of both gases.

For methane: CH4 molar mass is 16.04g/mol. We have 4.168g so M= m/n, n = m/M therefore
n = 4.168 / 16.04 = 0.259 ~ 0.26mols of methane

same thing for ethane.

 

[Borek]

No. You can't have 4.168g of methane plus 4.168g of ethane and 4.168g in total.

Use ideal gas equation to calculate total numebr of moles of gases.

Do you know Avogadro's hypothesis?

 

[Oblivion77]

No. You can't have 4.168g of methane plus 4.168g of ethane and 4.168g in total.

Use ideal gas equation to calculate total numebr of moles of gases.

Do you know Avogadro's hypothesis?

Ok, so how would I calculate how much of each compound by just knowing the molar mass?

V/n = constant?

 

[Borek]

Mass is molar mass times number of moles.