Question

A compound containing only carbon and hydrogen has a carbon-to-hydrogen mass ratio of 11.89. Which carbon-to-hydrogen mass ratio is possible for another compound composed of only carbon and hydrogen?

I'm not quite sure how to go about solving this. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Are there options?

you're basically using a ratio of the molar masses and the number of atoms, but this will vary depending on the type of bonding.

\(\sf ratio=\dfrac{(molar~mass~of~C)*(number ~of~C~atoms)}{(molar~mass~of~H)*(number~of~H~atoms )}\)

Pluggin in the molar masses reduces this to,

\(\sf ratio=\dfrac{ {12*(number ~of~C~atoms)}}{{1*(number~of~H~atoms )}}=12\dfrac{ {(number ~of~C~atoms)}}{{(number~of~H~atoms )}}\)

Plug in the number of atoms for the different types of hydrocarbons (e.g. alkanes, alkenes)

Answer 2

You're amazing, thank you so much. This question had me stumped!