Percentage Composition Lab Report Results

The aim of this experiment was to determine the percentage composition of magnesium and oxygen in magnesium oxide and evaluate if the composition varies or remains constant. To test this, magnesium was heated and made to react with the oxygen gas in the atmosphere. This reaction formed the ionic compound, magnesium oxide. The percentage composition was later calculated based on the results of the experiment as shown in the above calculations, Figure 4. These results were compared to the expected percentage composition also calculated in calculations, Figure 1.
The results illustrated that the percent composition by mass of magnesium oxide was variable. As shown in Figure 1, the expected percentage composition of magnesium was 60.32% and that of oxygen was 39.68%. However, based on the results obtained through this experiment, the compositions were very different as compared to the expected results. The percentage composition …show more content…
When the experiment was conducted, the magnesium was heated with a bunsen burner for about 6 minutes only. However, the complete reaction could have required more time for all of the magnesium to react and produce magnesium oxide. As calculated in Figure 1, the expected percent composition of magnesium in magnesium oxide is 60.32% and according to the law of definite proportion3, this percentage should be constant. Given this information, the amount of magnesium oxide that can be produced using 0.06g of magnesium can be determined. As shown in Figure 7, 0.1g of magnesium oxide could have been produced by 0.06g of magnesium. However according to Table 1, the product, magnesium oxide, was only 0.09g. This denotes that not all of the magnesium reacted with oxygen. Therefore, the results (mass of the product) of this experiment are incorrect. For future experiments, magnesium should be heated for a longer time period to ensure that all the magnesium has