Question

Calculate the theoretical yield of HnSO4 in a reaction that had a percent yield of 43.3% and an actual yield of 7.1g. Round your answer to the correct number of sig figs.

Answer 1

The question requires us to calculate the theoretical yield of a reaction, given the percent yield (43.3%) and actual yield (7.1g).

The percent yield of a chemical reaction can be calculated as:

$\%yield=\frac{actual\text{ yield (g)}}{\text{theoretical yield (g)}}\times100\%$

We can rearrange this equation in order to calculate the theoretical yield value. Our first step will be conver the

$\%yield=\frac{actual\text{ yield (g)}}{\text{theoretical yield (g)}}\times100\%\to\text{theoretical yield (g) = }\frac{actual\text{ yield (g)}\times100\%}{\%yield}$

Now, we can apply the values given by the question to the equation above:

$\text{theoretical yield = }\frac{7.1g\times100\%}{43.3\%}=16g$

Therefore, the theoretical yield of this reaction would be 16g. Note that the value for actual yield, 7.1g, was given with two significant figures - thus our answer must have the same amount of significant figures.