Empirical Formula Lab

When completing the empirical formula lab, the task was finding the relationship between the empirical formulas and mass of an object. The word “empirical” refers to the simplest ratio of atoms in a compound in relation to their molar mass. A scientist named Dalton created a theory about atoms, one of his rules being about the law of multiple proportions. This law states that reactants will always combine in whole number ratios. Joseph Proust, another chemist, found the law of definite proportions, which states that a compound contains elements in a fixed ratio by mass. These two laws relate to the empirical formula that was used in the lab, because the empirical formula is a ratio of elements. Since atoms are very small particles, they can be represented by larger particles called moles. 1 mole is equal to 6.022 x 1023 particles, and is used in this reaction to represent the empirical formula. When calculating an empirical formula, the grams of an element are

Zn is extremely reactive with HCl since it is a metal. The cylinder with the reaction immediately started bubbling as the Zn began combining with the Cl. That being said, there was still the hydrogen from the hydrochloric acid which was not needed in the zinc chloride. The hydrogen particles could not have just magically disappeared. What actually happened was that the hydrogen transformed into gas and it exited the system because Zinc has a stronger pull when combining with chlorine than hydrogen does; in other words, the zinc and chloride wanted to combine and make zinc chloride.When the hydrogen gas was forming, it formed bubbles which left the reaction and carried some of the mixture which contained the aqueous solution used in the experiment. This was condensation around the cylinder as shown in the image below (zoom in to see