Question

nitroglycerin (used medically as a vasodilator to treat heart conditions): {\rm C} 15.87\% {\rm H} 2.22\% {\rm N} 18.50\% {\rm O} 63.41\%.

Answer 1

None of this makes sense to me.

Answer 2

Will you please explain the meaning of {\rm C} etc?

Answer 3

If the previous two people were to use common sense, they might realize that Nitroglycerin is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. If you look in the {}, you will see the chemical symbol for Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Nitrogen (N), and Oxygen (O). And if you had any experience with any sort of college (maybe even high school) chemistry, you would know that it is asking for you to calculate the empirical formula using the percents of the elements.

That should be obvious because any teacher would ask a question like this in chemistry.

This particular question is a 'copy' and 'paste' from a question from the Mastering Chemistry Website problems. (i know this because that is how i found this site)

Now that I have given you all of the necessary information, one of you should be able to answer it (or someone new, since this was posted 2.5 years ago)