Question

The discovery of the element argon by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay had its origins in Rayleigh’s measurements of the density of nitrogen with an eye toward accurate determination of its molar mass. Rayleigh prepared some samples of nitrogen by chemical reaction of nitrogen-containing compounds; under his standard conditions, a glass globe filled with this ‘chemical nitrogen’ had a mass of 2.2990 g. He prepared other samples by removing oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapour from atmospheric air; under the same conditions, this ‘atmospheric nitrogen’ had a mass of 2.3102 g (Lord Rayleigh, Royal Institution Proceedings 14, 524 (1895)). With the hindsight of knowing accurate values for the molar masses of nitrogen and argon, compute the mole fraction of argon in the latter sample on the assumption that the former was pure nitrogen and the latter a mixture of nitrogen and argon. Please show work.

Answer 1

N2-2.3 (0.2 Nb.of v nok, of A.. о.08 2 , ЙАХ 39.95 0.0821 +0.c0203 0.03413 0.084I3 . CO203 o o84I3 0.020