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General Chemistry

Learn the toughest concepts covered in Chemistry with step-by-step video tutorials and practice problems by world-class tutors

3. Chemical Reactions

Mass Percent

Mass Percent is the percentage of a particular element within a compound. 

Mass Percent
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Mass Percent Concept

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here. We're going to say that mass percent, also known as weight percent, is the percentage of a given element in a compound. Now we're gonna stay here. It deals with the Moller Mass in grams of the selected element and one more of the compound. So this translate to say that mass percent equals the mass or grands of an element divided by the grams off the compound used and then multiplying that by 100. Using this helps us to determine the percent composition of any particular element within a given compound.
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Mass Percent Example

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here, it says to calculate the mass percent of carbon within sodium carbonate, So sodium carbonate is N a to C 03 We're looking for the mass percent off carbon, so that means we're gonna need the grams of carbon over the grams of the compound itself. Times 100. Alright, so sodium carbonate has within it to sodium one carbon and three oxygen's. We're gonna multiply them each by their atomic masses from the periodic table. So sodium is 22.99 g, carbon is 12.1 g and oxygen is g. So multiplying them out, we get 50 45.98 g, 12.1 g and 48 g. Add them all together. That comes out to 105.99 g. Take those numbers. So for carbon, it's Mass is 12 01 and for the compound itself, it's 105.99 So we do 12.1 divided by 105.99 When we do that, we get 11.3% as the mass percent of carbon within sodium carbonate
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Problem

Determine the percent composition of nitrogen and oxygen with nitrogen dioxide, NO2.

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