... solve for molecular weight (MW). As a result, the equation used in the Dumas Method is as follows: MW = mRT/PV (Giunta, 2003). The Dumas method depends on a lot of things to go right. For example, the liquid used in this experiment must be volatile enough to vaporize at high temperatures (Giunta, 2003) On the other hand, the liquid must not be too volatile to ensure that a significant amount of the liquid to evaporate as the flask cools (Giunta, 2003) Therefore, liquids with weaker intermolecular forces, which are forces that hold molecules together (Cerpovicz and Wojciechowski, 1998) would have less error than those liquids containing stronger intermolecular forces. For this experiment, two volatile liquids were used. The first was methanol and the second was an unknown liquid, which may have been methanol, ethanol, iso-propanol and hexane. Methanol is a clear, flammable and toxic liquid which is sometimes ...

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