Complete combustion of 8.80 g of a hydrocarbon produced 27.1 g of CO2 and 12.5 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula for the hydrocarbon?

Answer 1

Convert mols CO2 to mols C. That's 27.1/44 = ?

Convert mols H2O to mols H. That's 12.5*2/18 = ?

Now find the ratio of C to H with the smaller number being no less than 1.00. The easy way to do that is to divide the smaller number by itself (thereby assuring you of getting 1.00 for that one) and find the empirical formula.