Length of a cubic box containing 1 mole of sugar cubes

  • Thread starter Thread starter armolinasf
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Length Moles
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
Sign up Log in
4 replies · 7K views
armolinasf
Messages
195
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



A typical sugar cube has an edge length of 1 cm. If you had a cubical box that contained 1 mole of sugar cubes what would its length be?

I'm pretty sure I could solve this one if I had a better idea as to what a mole actually is...Thanks for the help
 
Physics news on Phys.org

Discussion

A mole of some object is simply 6.02*1023 of that object. This number is known as Avogadro's Number. For example, 1 mole of hydrogen molecules consists of 6.02*1023 H2 particles, and 2 moles of golf balls consists of 12.04*1023 balls.

If you have 1 mole of sugar cubes, you could easily work out the total volume occupied by those cubes (given that each individual cube has a volume of 1 cm3). You could then work out what size cube would give this total volume.
 
That's a weird unit, but the question is basically asking for the cube root of one mole right?
 
armolinasf said:
That's a weird unit, but the question is basically asking for the cube root of one mole right?

It is a very useful unit in chemistry. Essentially, yea the answer will be the cube root of avogadros number.