Writing the Formula of an Inorganic Salt

Organic chemistry deals with compounds of carbon.
Inorganic chemistry deals with compounds of any other element.
One of the earliest known classes of inorganic compounds were salts.
Salts are binary, ionic compounds, that is, salts are made up of two ions:

• a positively charged ion called a cation
• a negatively charged ion called an anion 

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is establishing rules to help us name, and write the formula, for compounds.
In an earlier tutorial we looked at how we name inorganic salts, in this tutorial we look at how to write the formula of an inorganic salt.

Empirical Formula of Magnesium Oxide

It's one of the "classic" experiments in school chemistry, combusting (burning) some magnesium in a crucible to make magnesium oxide.
While the lab questions usually focus on identifying that a chemical change has occurred, and calculating either percentage composition and/or empirical formula of magnesium oxide, I wonder how many students are really thinking about the experiment?
So, AUS-e-TUTE has written a tutorial that (hopefully) will help students think about why certain procedures are followed, and the kinds of errors one can expect.

AUS-e-TUTE members should log-in to use the new tutorial, game and test.

If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE Member, a "free-to-view" tutorial is currently available for evaluation purposes at http://www.ausetute.com.au/mgo.html

Information about AUS-e-TUTE Membership is available at www.ausetute.com.au/membership.html

and you can become an AUS-e-TUTE member at http://www.ausetute.com.au/register.html