We did a titration lab, and one of the post-lab questions says: "the manufacturer of the vinegar used in this experiment claims that the vinegar contains 5% acetic acid by weight. Use your results and a density of 1g/mL to determine if this claim is true or false.

Question

So the concentration of acetic acid I found in my experiment was 0.8655 M, and i used the molar mass of acetic acid to find that the acetic acid would be 51.98g/mL.

I known that I need to have the mass of the acetic acid and the mass of the vinegar solution to find the percent I'll need, but how do I go from the 51.98 g/mL to just g and how would I find the g of the vinegar solution? (and where does the density come in??)

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

I don't believe you have 51.98 g/mL but I might believe it is 51.98 g/L.
0.8655 mols/L x 60.05 g/mol = 51.97 by my calculations and that is g/L.
Since you want %, that is 5.197 g/100 mL and since the density is 1 g/mL that is 5.197 g/100 g solution and that is 5.197% by weight.