Certainly! Let me walk you through the detailed steps to calculate the percentage by mass of Sodium (Na) in sodium trioxonitrate (NaNO₃).
### Step 1: Determine the atomic masses
To start, we need the atomic masses of each element involved in the compound:
- Sodium (Na) has an atomic mass of 23.
- Nitrogen (N) has an atomic mass of 14.
- Oxygen (O) has an atomic mass of 16.
### Step 2: Calculate the molecular mass of sodium trioxonitrate (NaNO₃)
Next, we need to calculate the molecular mass of NaNO₃ by summing up the atomic masses of all the atoms in one molecule of the compound:
- Sodium (Na): 1 atom, so its contribution is [tex]\( 1 \times 23 = 23 \)[/tex]
- Nitrogen (N): 1 atom, so its contribution is [tex]\( 1 \times 14 = 14 \)[/tex]
- Oxygen (O): 3 atoms, so their combined contribution is [tex]\( 3 \times 16 = 48 \)[/tex]
Now, we sum these contributions to find the total molecular mass:
[tex]\[ \text{Molecular Mass of NaNO₃} = 23 + 14 + 48 = 85 \][/tex]
### Step 3: Calculate the percentage by mass of Sodium (Na) in NaNO₃
The percentage by mass of an element in a compound can be calculated using the following formula:
[tex]\[ \% \text{ by mass of an element} = \left( \frac{\text{Mass of the element in one molecule}}{\text{Molecular mass of the compound}} \right) \times 100 \][/tex]
Thus, for Sodium (Na) in NaNO₃:
[tex]\[ \% \text{ by mass of Na} = \left( \frac{23}{85} \right) \times 100 \][/tex]
### Step 4: Plug in the values to get the final answer
[tex]\[ \% \text{ by mass of Na} \approx 27.06 \][/tex]
The percentage by mass of Sodium in sodium trioxonitrate (NaNO₃) is approximately 27.06%.
