Empirical Formula (HW problem F.11, part a)

[Steven Garcia 1H]

After I changed the mass percentages of each element into masses, I then converted these masses into moles by dividing the masses of each element by their corresponding molar masses. In the end, I ended up with a ratio of 2.95:1:5.91 for Na:Al:F. Is it safe to round these ratio values to whole numbers? How close to a whole number does a value have to be to allow for this rounding?

[Vanadium Wang 4H]

Yes, it is safe to round these ratio values into whole numbers. I believe that values can be off .1 and rounding would still produce a valid answer.

[Sona Hakobyan 3J]

Yes it is safe to round up these numbers. I've heard that the numbers have to be within 5 percent of the next closest integer to be rounded. .