How Can We Use Oil to Estimate Avogadro's Number?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around estimating Avogadro's number using an oil film on water. The original poster presents a problem involving the density and volume of oil, the dimensions of oil molecules, and the relationship between molecular volume and molar mass.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the calculation of the height of the oil film and its implications for molecular dimensions. There are attempts to convert units correctly and to calculate the number of molecules based on the area covered by the oil.

Discussion Status

Some participants have provided corrections regarding unit conversions and have shared updated calculations. There is ongoing exploration of the relationship between the calculated values and Avogadro's number, with no explicit consensus reached yet.

Contextual Notes

Participants are working under the constraints of the problem statement and are questioning their assumptions about the dimensions and properties of the oil molecules.

fluidistic
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Hi PF,
I'm getting an headache on this problem.

Homework Statement


Rayleigh put a milligram of oil which density is 0.9g/cm^3 on a water surface and found out that the oil covered an area of 0.9 m^2.
1)What is the height of the oil film?
2)The height of the oil film is of the same order as a molecule of oil, which lead us to suppose that the oil film is one molecule thin.
Suppose that the three dimensions of the oil molecule are the same, find the molecular volume of oil.
3)If the molar mass of oil is 282.5g/mol, estimate Avogadro's number through the comparison of molecular volume and molar volume.

Homework Equations

Avogadro's number is about 6.02 \times 10^{23}.

The Attempt at a Solution


1)Density \rho is worth \frac{m}{V}=0.9 so V=\frac{0.001}{0.9}=0.00111111...cm^3 where V is the volume of the oil drop.
Now V=base \cdot h hence h=0.00001234567889cm.
2)Calculating the volume of a molecule lead me nowhere. Instead in order to find Avogadro's number I think it's more effective to follow this : as the dimensions of the molecule are the same and that the diameter or height or length of it is worth 0.00001234567889cm, each molecule cover a surface of (0.00001234567889cm)^2. Now I can find how many molecules are in the drop. Because it has a surface of 0.9m^2 or 90cm^2. \frac{90}{(0.00001234567889cm)^2}=5.904900127\times 10^{11}.
Now for part 3), we know that the oil drop was 0.001g and that a mole of oil is 282.5g. So that I must multiply by 282500 the number of molecules in the drop to find the number of molecule in a mole, that is Avogadro's number. But doing so I find 1.661320857 \times 10^{17}...

P.S.: I also tried via the way they suggested, but found something like 3.5\times 10 ^{17} and I had to suppose that the form of the molecules was spherical.
Of course I made errors and I'm missing something. If you could help me that would be kind! Thank you.
 
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Hi,

You're not converting 0.9 m2 into cm2 correctly.
 
Redbelly98 said:
Hi,

You're not converting 0.9 m2 into cm2 correctly.

Thank you SO much. I'll do the algebra tomorrow when I wake up. (too late for now).
 
0.9m^2=8100cm^2.
My final result becomes 1.50\times 10^{19}. I'm getting closer but I'm still very far from what I should get.
 
I'm getting much closer to Avogadro's number.

What do you get now for h and also for the number of molecules in the oil drop?
 
Redbelly98 said:
I'm getting much closer to Avogadro's number.

What do you get now for h and also for the number of molecules in the oil drop?

I forgot to change the volume! Now I got the right result : 1.216069868 \times 10^{23}. If you still mind I got a number of 4.3046721 \times 10^{17} for the number of molecules in the drop and h is worth \frac{0.00111...}{8100}cm.
Thanks for your help and time.
 
Cool, glad it worked out.
 

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