Chemical Composition Equations

These equations intimidated me when I first saw them. But, once I broke them down and wrote why numbers were what they were, they seem OK. Here's how I keep things organized:

1. Find mass of hydrate (everything in the test tube/crucible)
2. Find mass of anhydrous salt (I write down 'salt' to simplify things)
3. Find mass of H2O (hydrate -  salt)
4. Convert amount of H2O and amount of salt into moles
5. Divide water from salt ( H2O/Salt)
6. Round to whole number.

Hope this helps! If you're still confused, here are some good ~*LINKS*~ to check out:

1. Hydrate Help from Chem.com

2 Help from Study. com (pictures)

3. Here's a video if you're a visual learner: http://study.com/academy/lesson/hydrates-determining-the-chemical-formula-from-empirical-data.html