Recent content by yhPscis

The electric charge is measured in Coulombs. 1 Coulomb is defined as "the charge of approximately 6.241×10^18 electrons" by wikipedia. When I look up the charge of one electron, I get: 1.60217657 × 10^-19 coulombs I'm confused by the fact that electronic charge is defined in terms of...

Okay, thanks to you too then (the Internet makes it difficult to know how to take things, sorry!)

Oh, I see, I mistakenly thought it didn't matter which nucleon because the difference of mass between both nucleons was negligible. So, If I understood it well, by using Avogadro's number, you only get an approximation of the mass, but they use that method anyway because, although it's not...

Oh, I understand that people look for the most convenient way to measure things. Before it was redefined as 1/1000 of the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram in France, the gram was defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water (according to wiki), so I guess it makes...

But if 1 amu does not equal the mass of a nucleon, then the mass of the nucleon can't be canceled out in the equaltion: [SIZE="1"] 1 amu = 1 g/NA NA = 1g/1 amu Mass of atom = number of nucleons x mass of 1 nucleon NA x Mass of atom = NA x number of nucleons x mass of 1 nucleon 1g/1 amu x...

Wait, if 1 amu equals 1g/Avogadro's number (as defined), then Avogadro's number equals 1g/1 amu, right? And 1g/1amu is the reciprocal of 1 amu, right? And 1 amu is 1/12 of the mass of a C-12 atom, so it's the mass of one nucleon. So that definition does say that Avogadro's number is the...

I think you were answering me while I was editing my post, so you didn't see the change, but I'm still confused on: how come their arbitrary choice (of the number of atoms in 12 grams of C-12) causes the mass of the atom to equal the atomic number in grams? How can something arbitrary fit so...

EDITED POST So you're contradicting ElmorshedyDr's logic? You're saying that they came up with Avogadro's number first and then calculated the amu value? So the number of Avogadro isn't actually the reciprocal of the mass of a nucleon (chosen to make the mass of the nucleon cancel out in the...

Thank you. :smile: I think I understand the logic behind it: Having n times the mass of an atom is practical in that it enables us to cancel out the number of nucleons in the equation (they're equal to 1)[SIZE="2"]mass of Avogadro's number of atoms = mass of proton or neutron x mass number x...

Can you please explain how they did? 1 amu is the mass of 1 nucleon. The mass of a nucleon can't be chosen, it's fixed, it's a fact of nature that we can merely observe. This source explains that scientists couldn't directly measure the mass of a nucleon so they created the relationship...

...dauto, I don't know if I'm supposed to take this as a mockery or a benevolent explanation of what you think is wrong with my way of thinking. If it's the former, know that it's very disturbing and I'd like you to not do that again in the future. It's counterproductive to try to embarrass...

1 mole of a substance equals the amount of grams needed for that substance to have 6.0221413e+23 (Avogadro's number) atoms in it, isn't it? In order to determine how many grams one mole of a substance is, I've learned that you just need to check the atomic mass number on your periodic table...

Thank you for your answers! I now understand that mass is only defined by its effects, so I realize that my biggest problem is related to quantification. I don't understand how people came up with a system to quantify mass. I tried to figure it out using the formula for mass, which is F= m ...

I understand that mass isn't weight. When I look up "what is mass?", I come across all kinds of videos explaining the difference between mass and weight, but that is not what I am looking for. I'm trying to understand the concept of mass, fundamentally, because it doesn't really mean anything to...

From what I've been taught, the entropy of a system is the amount of microstates a macrostate can have. A microstate refers to the configuration of a system on a microscopic level (energy of each particle, location of each particle), a macrostate refers to the external parameters of that system...