500
The rotten smell of a decaying animal carcass is partially due to a nitrogen-containing compound call putrescine. Elemental analysis of putrescine indicates that it consists of 54.50% C, 13.73%H, and 31.77%N. Calculate the empirical formula of putrescine.
What is "to solve this problem, you need to understand that 54.50% C also means that in a 100g sample of this compound, you'll have 54.50g of C - this will be your conversion factor. From there, you convert to moles of C using the molar mass (1 mol C / 12.01g C). Then you write your pseudoformula, and multiply it out to get the empirical (to the blackboard!); correct empirical formula = C2H6N