Question

How many moles of carbon are found in 250.0 g of CaCO3?

I started off with finding the molar mass of CaCO3, which is 100.09g. From there I divided 250g by 100.09g, but I have no idea what to do from there.

Answer 1

ok, at that point you know how many moles of CaCO3 you have. Now look at the formula: for each mole of CaCO3, there is one mole of C.

Moles of C=250.0/100.1 to four decimal places (if your mole mass is correct)

Answer 2

If there is one mole of Carbon for every CaCO3, all I had to do was divide it and that would be my answer (2.498)? What if it was 2 moles of carbon instead of one, what would I have to do then?

Answer 3

What you have done now is
mols CaCO3 = g/molar mass = 250/100.09 = 2.498 mols.
Then convert from mols CaCO3 to mols C.
2.498 x (1 mol C/1 mol CaCO3) = 2.498 x 1/1 = 2.498 mols C.

Suppose the formula for CaCO3 was CaC2O3 (strictly a fictitious compound).
Then mols CaC2O3 in 250 g is 250/112.1 = 2.230. Now convert to mols C
2.230 mols CaC2O3 x (2 mols C/1 mol CaC2O3) = 2.230 x 2/1 = ?

Answer 4

Just to recap:
I divide the grams of the compound by its molar mass. From there, I do the mol conversion from CaCO3 to C and that will by my answer.

Answer 5

yes. It's two steps.
1. Convert grams you have to mols.
2. Convert mols of what you have to mols of what you want.