Today we learned how to take data from oxide masses and convert it to molecular and ionic formulas.
At some point, scientists in the 1860s decided that setting isolated elements on fire was the best way to learn science (it seems to have worked fairly well). What they found is that elements combine with oxygen in specific mass ratios, and from our understanding of molar mass, we can determine the mole ratio of the substance we burned to oxygen. See the presentation for details.
Aim: How can we determine the chemical formula of a compound from its oxide mass data?
Presentation:
