Chemistry help! empirical formula?

2008-02-21 04:31:32  

Chemistry help! empirical formula? show me the steps!!
Find the empirical formula of a compound, give that a 48.5g sample of the compound is found to contain 1.75g of carbon(C) and 46.75g of bromine(Br). (C=12.0g/mol;Br=79.9g/mol)
Ok so first:

so u have 46.75 g of Br, u have to calculate how many moles that is:

46.75 g Br x ( 1 mol Br / 79.9 g Br) = 0.585 mol Br
1.75 g C x ( 1 mol C / 12.0 g C) = 0.14583 mol C

So now u divide both of the compounds by the lower moles

0.14583 mol C / 0.14583 = 1
0.585 mol Br / 0.14583 = 4.01
We can approximate Br = 4

so the empirical formula is:
CBr4