Answer:
The number of waters of hydration in Epson salts is x=7
[tex]MgSO_{4} .7H_{2}O[/tex]
Explanation:
Then, we could obtain the mass of water quitted subtracting those values, as shown below:
Let´s calculate this in moles. To do that we may know the molecular weight of water, so, we add the atomics wheights´ contributions of its components:
Then, the number of water moles in the sample is:
Now, to know hoy many moles are 2.41 g of [tex]MgSO_{4}[/tex] we may use the molecular weight of [tex]MgSO_{4}[/tex].
Hydrated ionic compounds´ formulas are normally written for 1 mol of the salt (in our case [tex]MgSO_{4}[/tex]), and the corresponding number of water molecules.
So, we have a sample with 0.02 mol of [tex]MgSO_{4}[/tex] and 0.14 mol [tex]H_{2}O[/tex]. Let´s find the multiplying factor to obtain the forula for 1 mol of [tex]MgSO_{4}[/tex]:
Finally, we must multiply the number of water moles in the sample with this factor to obtain x, as well: