1. a student did not completely burn all the magnesium and some un-burned magnesium remained.
How will this affect the empirical formula found?
Solution
Mg(s) + N 2 (g) + O 2 (g) ---> MgO(s) + Mg 3 N 2 (s)
If you left some Mg 3 N 2 in the crucible as product you would calculate a ratio of MgO to
contain too little oxygen. When we weigh the final contents we wont know that the contents have
more magnesium, we assume it’s pure MgO. Mg 3 N 2 does not contain any oxygen, so there
would be too little oxygen, but there is magnesium present so there is more magnesium than
oxygen. Since we did not completely burn all the magnesium and some un-burned magnesium
remained, hence we will find that Mg:O ratio will be too high.
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