Question

Complete combustion of 8.30 g of a hydrocarbon produced 26.5 g of CO2 and 9.50 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula for the hydrocarbon?

Answer 1

combustion should hint you that the products of the reaction are: \(\sf \color{red}{CO_2+H_2O}\) when you burn some hydrocarbon. So basically, what you're doing is solving for m, and n when you have: \(\sf \color{blue}{C_mH_n}\)

Answer 2

Start by finding the moles of each compound given. You have CO\(_2\) and H\(_2\)O. Find their molar mass, you're going to be doing some conversion to get moles.