The label on an Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry drink lists 30 g of sugar in 240 mL of drink. I weighed 240 mL of drink and found its mass to be 251 g. What is the percent composition of sugar in the drink?

1 Answer
Mar 3, 2017

"12% sugar"12% sugar

Explanation:

We use percent composition as a measure of how many grams of a given substance are present in exactly "100 g"100 g of a compound or a mixture.

In this case, the percent composition of sugar in the beverage will tell you how many grams of sugar you get for every "100 g"100 g of beverage.

Now, you know that you have "30 g"30 g of sugar in "251 g"251 g of beverage. This is the known composition of the drink. You can use this composition to determine the mass of sugar present in "100 g"100 g of beverage.

100 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g drink"))) * "30 g sugar"/(251color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g drink")))) = "11.95 g sugar"100g drink30 g sugar251g drink=11.95 g sugar

This means that the percent composition of sugar in the drink will be

color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("% sugar = 12%")))

I'll leave the answer rounded to two sig figs, but keep in mind that you only have one significant figure for the mass of sugar.