How Much is a Mole?
Date: 11/17/2000 at 10:08:42 From: Lindsey Subject: How much is a mole of something I am working on a dimensional analysis problem for chemistry and the question requires you to know how many grams are in a mole. How many are there?
Date: 11/17/2000 at 10:14:50 From: Doctor Mitteldorf Subject: Re: How much is a mole of something A mole isn't a specific number of grams - it's a specific number of molecules. One mole of any material is 6.02*10^23 molecules of that material. The reason for this strange, rather large number is that it turns out to be a convenient way to work with macroscopic proportions. 6.02*10^23 is called Avogadro's number, and it is the number of protons in a gram. That also makes it a conversion factor between atomic weight units and grams. For example, a mole of hydrogen atoms weighs exactly 1 gram, because atomic hydrogen has atomic weight of 1. A mole of water is 18 grams of water, because each water molecule consists of 2 hydrogen atoms (atomic weight 1 each) + 1 oxygen atom (atomic weight 16 each). - Doctor Mitteldorf, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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