We burn magnesium in the air and assume that only the oxygen reacts, we get a mass ratio of Mg to Mgo of about 60%. But nitrogen can also be involved in the actual reaction.
-Suppose that it is only nitrogen and oxygen that combines with our sample of magnesium, would the magnesium to reaction product mass ratio increase or decrease from that of a reaction with oxygen alone?
I think that the higher intramolecular mass ratio of Mg to Mg3N2 will push up the Mg to reaction product ratio to anywhere between 60 an 72 percent. This is obvious to me but my son's chemistry teacher thinks that the mass ratio goes down if nitrogen reaction also occurs to any extent.
