Percent Composition

Today in class we learned about percent compositions and took our quiz on molar mass and unit conversions.

To start class today we talked about percent composition. Percent composition is used to describe the make up of a compound by mass percentage. It compares the mass of each element present in 1 mole to the total mass of the compound.

In our notes we did this sample problem:

Find the mass percent of each element in C14H20N2SO4.

14(12)+20(1)+2(14)+32+4(16)=312 (The numbers in the parenthesis are rounded versions of the atomic mass)

This format is repeated for the rest of the components. The decimal answer you get is your mass percent.