Ran across a question when working through my Morrison and Boyd Organic book that went: The hormone insulin contains 3.4% sulfur. (a) What is the
minimum molecular weight of insulin? (b) The actual molecular weight is 5734; how many sulfur atoms are probably present per molecule?
I honestly just took a stab in the dark by dividing 3.4/32.06 to get about 10% and divided this into the remaining 96.6% to get a ratio of about 1 to
10 for C,H, and O. So I just guess C10H10O10S to get an answer of 322.23 for (a). and then divided that into 5734 to
get 18 for S.
The answer was actually 942 for (a) and 6 for (b).
How do you go about solving this question?
ThanksTexium - 6-1-2017 at 09:27
First you do 32.06/.034 which gives you 942. That would be if 1 molecule of sulfur represented 3.4% of the mass of the molecule.
Then you simply divide 5734 by 942 to get about 6. Or you can get the same answer by doing 5734 x .034, and then that answer /32.06, to give
approximately 6.aga - 6-1-2017 at 11:49
If it's any consolation, i stared at that for a while, and was a bit lost.
Overthinking things tends to be a recurring problem.
Now the problem has been worked through, it seems so obvious.
