Empirical Formulas

[NoniBayar 2J]

Hi! When solving for an empirical formula, I don’t quite understand what the range to round down or up begins and ends. For example, say that we are trying to find the empirical formula for C6H12O6, and I get ~1.24 for O (this isn’t correct but for the sake of the example), do I multiply the other numbers so it gets closer to a whole number or round down to 1? Thank you, sorry if this is confusing!

[marissa]

Hi! I was talking to a TA and they said it all really just depends. Sorry I know this isnt the answer you were looking for! But out of all the practice problems I have done from the textbook, they have all been very close to a whole number like 1.99. The TA also said that it also depends on the other numbers, but I believe that on the midterm, it will be pretty straight forward numbers.