Grams counting atoms

On the other hand, this same amount of electricity will deposit exactly twice as much mercury, 2 x (6.03) = 12.1 grams, from a solution of mercurous perchlorate, Hg2(ClCh)2. If we restate Faraday s experimental finding in terms of the atomic theory, we see that the number of atoms of mercury deposited by a certain quantity of electricity is a constant or a simple multiple of this constant. Apparently this certain quantity of electricity can count atoms. A simple interpretation is that there are packages of electricity. During electrolysis, these packages are parcelled out, one to an atom, or two to an atom, or three. 

Was this your answer Both terms include the word mass and so are easily confused. Focus your attention on the second word of each term, however, and you ll get it right every time. Mass number is a count of the number of nucleons in an isotope. An atom s mass number requires no units because it is simply a count. Atomic mass is a measure of the total mass of an atom, which is given in atomic mass units. If necessary, atomic mass units can be converted to grams using the relationship i atomic mass unit = 1.661 x io 24 gram. 

How can you use this relationship to relate mass and moles The periodic table tells us the average mass of a single atom in atomic mass units (u). For example, zinc has an average atomic mass of 65.39 u. One mole of an element has a mass expressed in grams numerically equivalent to the element s average atomic mass expressed in atomic mass units. One mole of zinc atoms has a mass of 65.39 g. This relationship allows chemists to use a balance to count atoms. You can use the periodic table to determine the mass of one mole of an element. 

The meaning of a chemical formula was discussed in Chapter 5, and we learned how to interpret formulas in terms of the numbers of atoms of each element per formula unit. In this chapter, we will learn how to calculate the number of grams of each element in any given quantity of a compound from its formula and to do other calculations involving formulas. Formula masses are presented in Section 7.1, and percent composition is considered in Section 7.2. Section 7.3 discusses the mole—the basic chemical quantity of any substance. Moles can be used to count atoms, molecules, or ions and to calculate the mass of any known number of formula units of a substance. Section 7.4 shows how to use relative mass data to determine empirical formulas, and the method is extended to molecular formulas in Section 7.5. 

In the arithmetic of chemistry, a lot of calculations come down to counting atoms and molecules. The international unit for the amount of substance isn t the kilogram (which is used for mass), it s the mole. Chemists need to think in terms of numbers of particles, and this is what the mole allows. The mole is a very large number 6.022 x 1023. It is the number of carbon-12 atoms in exactly 12.00 grams of that isotope. It is such an important number in chemistry that it has its own special name, Avogadro s number, named after Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856), one of the most famous early scientists. 

Earlier we used atomic mass units for mass, because atoms are so tiny, in the laboratory, a much larger unit, the gram, is the convenient unit for mass. Now we will learn to count atoms in samples with masses given in grams. 

Because samples of matter typically contain so many atoms, a unit of measure called the mole has been established for use in counting atoms. For our purposes it is most convenient to define the mole (abbreviated mol) as the number equal to the number of carbon atoms in exactly 12 grams of pure... 

Mole (mol) (3.4) The particular quantity by which chemists usually choose to count atoms or molecules. The number of particles in one mole is defined as the number of atoms in exaaly 12 grams of C, which is also called Avogadro r number. 

The mole is often referred to as a chemist s unit of quantity. Counting atoms is a difficult process and beyond the scope of most calculators, but measuring the mass of a sample is easy when we can relate the number of atoms in a sample to its mass. This is the unique purpose of the mole. A mole of any substance is its molecular formula weight expressed in grams. Avogadro s number s a universal constant that states the number of molecules in a mole Nq = 6.023 x 10 molecules/mole. One mole (abbreviated mol) of any element (chemical compound) has the same number of chemical particles as one mole of another element (chemical compound). In other words, 1 mole of any compound contains 6.02 x 10 molecules. Review the following problem using the mole concept. 

This definition of the mole establishes a relationship between mass (grams of carbon) and number of atoms (Avogadro s number). This relationship, as we will see shortly, allows us to count atoms by weighing them. 

To count atoms by weighing them, we need one other conversion factor—the mass of 1 mol of atoms. For the isotope carbon-12, we know that the mass of 1 mol of atoms is exactly 12 grams, which is numerically equivalent to carbon-12 s atomic mass in atomic mass units. Since the masses of all other elements are defined relative to carbon-12, the same relationship holds for all elements. 

Molar mass is important when we need to know the number of atoms in a sample. It would be impossible to count out 6 X ID23 atoms of an element, but it is very easy to measure out a mass equal to the molar mass of the element in grams. Each of the samples shown in Fig. E.2 was obtained in this way each sample contains the same number of atoms of the element (6.022 X 1023), but the masses vary because the masses of the atoms are different (Fig. E.4). The same rule applies to compounds. Flence, if we measure out 58.44 g of sodium chloride, we obtain a sample that contains 1.000 mol NaCl formula units (Fig. E.5). 

Why then, is such a complicated and expensive set up necessary AMS combines mass spectrometric features with efficient discrimination of isobaric and molecular interferences. Therefore, it can detect and quantify atomic species of very low abundance. In the case of 14C dating, before AMS was utilized, about 1 g of carbon was needed to date an archaeological item. One gram of fresh carbon contains about 6 x 1010 14C atoms, of which 14 decay per minute. To get 0.5% statistical precision using decay counting, a 48 h acquisition time is necessary. The same result can be obtained with AMS in about 10 min and with only 1 mg of carbon. 

Helium-3 is a decay product of radioactive tritium (3H, half-life = 12.44 years) that has been produced by nuclear bombs as well as naturally by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere. Because virtually all 3He atoms escape from the surface ocean to the atmosphere, the 3He/tritium ratio in subsurface seawater samples indicates the time since the water s last exposure to the atmosphere. Both 3He and tritium are measured by gas mass spectrometry. Alternatively, tritium may be measured by gas counting with a detection limit of 0.05 to 0.08 tritium unit, where 1 tritium unit represents a 3H/H ratio of lxl0 18. A degassed water sample is sealed and stored for several months to allow the decay product 3He to accumulate in the container. The amount of 3He is then measured by mass spectrometry, yielding a detection limit of 0.001 to 0.003 tritium unit when 400-gram water samples are used. With this technique, the time since a water mass left the surface can be determined within a range from several months to 30 years. 

Atoms, ions, and molecules are very small, so even tiny samples have a huge number of particles. To make counting such large numbers easier, scientists use the same approach to represent the number of ions or molecules in a sample as they use for atoms. The SI unit for amount is called the moie (mol). A mole is the number of atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. 

A mole of substance is the amount that contains Avogadro s number (6.022x10 ) of chemical entities (atoms, molecules, or formula units). The mass (in grams) of a mole has the same numerical value as the mass (in amu) of the entity. Thus, the mole allows us to count entitles by weighing them. Using the molar mass (jM., g/mol) of an element (or compound) and Avogadro s number as conversion factors, we can convert among amount (mol), mass (g), and number of entities. The mass fraction of element X in a compound is used to find the mass of X in any amount of the compound. 

Third, as the number of particles in a mole is tied to the mass of exactly 12 grams of carbon-12, a balance would need to be constructed that could determine if the sample was one atom over or under exactly 12 grams. If the first two reqtiirements were met, it would take one milfion machines counting one million atoms each second more than 19,000 years to complete the task. 

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