PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION

- Percentage Composition tells you by Mass what percent of each element is

present in a compound. A chemical compound is the combination of two or
more elements. If you are studying a chemical compound, you may want to
find the percent composition of a certain element within that chemical
compound. The equation for percent composition is (mass of
element/molecular mass) x 100. If you want to know the percent composition
of the elements in a compound, follow these steps:

Steps to Solve:

1. Find the molar mass of all the elements in the compound in grams per mole.

2. Find the molecular mass of the entire compound.

3. Divide the component's molar mass by the entire molecular mass.

4. You will now have a number between 0 and 1. Multiply it by 100 to get
percent composition

Tips for solving:

1. The compounds will always add up to 100%, so in a binary compound, you

can find the % of the first element, then do 100%-(% first element) to get (%
second element)

2. If using a calculator, you can store the overall molar mass to a variable such
as "A". This will speed up calculations, and reduce typographical errors.
Example 2.

The mass of one penny is 2.5 grams. How many pennies can the U.S.
government make with 20.0 Kg of copper if the mass percent composition of a
copper in the modern penny is 2.5%?

Given: We know that we are starting with 20.0 Kg of pure copper. We know the
mass percent composition of pure copper in the penny mixture. We also know
the mass of each penny.

Strategy: We need to figure out the mass of copper mixture we can make with
20.0 Kg of pure copper using the mass percent composition of the copper in the
penny mixture. From there we can determine how many individual pennies we
can make with this mixture.

Solutions:
Examples 3.

What is the mass of carbon contained in 3.0 g of butane (C4H10), lighter fluid?

Given: the mass of the whole (butane), what is the mass of the part (carbon)?

Strategy: use the mass percent composition formulas to convert from mass of
butane to mass of carbon:

Solution: