When dealing with percentages, then 100% =
all of the compound and we therefore set this equal to 100 g

  54.53 g C
+   9.15 g H
+ 36.32 g O
100 g

formula

First, we'll convert grams to moles (54.53 g C) / 1 (1 mole C) / (12.01 g C) = 4.54038 moles C   (9.15 g H) / 1   (1 mole H) / (1.01 g H) = 9.05941 moles H (36.32 g O) / 1 (1 mole O) / (16.00 g O) = 2.27 moles O

And now, we'll divide the moles of each element by the smallest number of moles C = (4.54038 moles) / (2.27 moles) = 2.00016 ~ 2 H = (9.05941 moles) / (2.27 moles) = 3.9909 ~ 4 O = (2.27 moles) / (2.27 moles) = 1

compound

Emperical Formula
C₂H₄O₁

Answer: B