What Are Moles and Why Do Chemists Use Them?

[LatexZone]

Homework Statement

Could you please explain to me what moles are and how it refers to Avogadro's Constant and why chemists use them? Thanks.

Homework Equations

There are no equations to my knowledge..

The Attempt at a Solution

I know what moles are I think but I am not sure how it refers to Avogadro's Constant and why a specialized chemist would use them.

Please help and I will do my best to offer some too.

Thanks.

 

[HallsofIvy]

The mass, in grams, of a mole of a given compound is equal to the total molecular weight opf the compound in atomic units- thus, easy to calculate.

 

[LatexZone]

Could you please explain to me how it refers to Avogadro's Constant? :\

 

[LatexZone]

Basically, say I was asked to explain what moles are and how they refer to the Avogadro's Constant and why chemists use them.

I hope that makes more sense to how I need help.

Thanks guys.

 

[jambaugh]

Recall that atomic mass units are defined to coincide with the number of nucleons (neutrons and protons) in an atom. The problem is that with E=mc^2 we don't quite get nice integer units due to the nuclear binding energies and also slight difference between proton and neutron free masses. However they are close to integer valued with the calibrating definition given as: Carbon 12 has exactly atomic mass of 12 units (AMU's).

Of course AMUs are too small for practical work so it is nice to translate to practical units like grams.

So the definition of a mole is that 12 grams of Carbon 12 is exactly one mole of Carbon 12. Or 1 gram = Avogadro's constant times 1 mass unit. Avagadro's number is how many carbon 12 atoms there are in 12 grams of carbon 12.

Working with moles you can then use the chemical formulas of reactions since there is a 1-1 correspondence to number of moles and number of molecules (a la Avogadro's constant). Thus 2 moles of hydrogen gas (H2) plus 1 mole of oxygen gas (O2) yields 4 moles of atomic hydrogen and 2 moles of atomic oxygen which reacts to form 2 moles of water (H2O).

 

[LatexZone]

Thanks for the information.

Appreciated.

Does anyone else have any more simpler information?

Thanks!

 

[mgb_phys]

In chemistry you are thinking of individual atoms
ie. water is one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms

Avagadro's constant simply tells you how many atoms you have in so many grams of each substance

 

[Dadface]

I think there are many examples where the use of the mol makes calculations etc easier.As an example with the ideal gas equation we could refer to one kg of gas or one mol of gas.With one kg different gases have different constants but with one mol the constant is the same for all gases.

 

[LatexZone]

Could you please give me some examples of Moles?
Could you also please show them so I can further understand it?

Thanks.

 

[LatexZone]

Do you know what I mean? If not, feel free to ask.

 

[Bohrok]

A mole is just a number, like a dozen. Previous posts have already given information on how/why the number was chosen.
Avogadro's constant, 6.0221415×10²³ mol^-1, just says that there are 6.0221415×10²³ of something per mole of that something, much like a "dozen constant," 1 doz^-1, would be 12 of something per dozen.

Do you want a better explanation on why we use the number 6.0221415×10²³ from the whole gram-amu Carbon 12 definition?

 

[LatexZone]

I have understood a lot from thus forums so far but my final section of homework in relation to Moles tells me the following; "Examples of Moles are shown"

In my notes, I have wrote something down like "10 moles of Argon gas; (40) + (0) = 40 | 1 mole = 40g x 10 = 400g"

Is this what it is asking me to write down as examples? I don't get it :\

 

[LatexZone]

This is confusing me lol.

 

[Lok]

This is confusing me lol.

As said above a mole is a number of atoms, molecules or ions (for starters). We know that O plus H eqals H₂0. So 1 O atom plus 2 H atoms equal 1 H₂0 molecule. If we take 1 mole of O 2 of H we get 1 of H₂0. Moles are better than weight, that would be 16 grams of O react with 2 grams of H to result in 18 g of water. Things are easy with simple molecules, but when you work with complex organic molecules or polymers weight is computational dead weight. Moles are the future!

Historically the number was chosen as the number of atoms in 12g of C (be it diamond, graphite or else) , the exact number wasn't found out with certainty until much later, but it did'nt matter that much as the concept helped a lot in chemistry. It is usually useless to know the number of atoms in a sample, unless you work in atomic physics or smaller.

Avogadro's constant tells you how many atoms, molecules or ions (still for starters) there are in one mole of that substance.

 

[LatexZone]

I finally realize the avogadros and moles but what it asks me to write down examples of moles, what do they expect me to write?

Is it something like this? "10 moles of Argon gas; (40) + (0) = 40 | 1 mole = 40g x 10 = 400g"

or is that something completely different?

 

[Lok]

I finally realize the avogadros and moles but what it asks me to write down examples of moles, what do they expect me to write?

Is it something like this? "10 moles of Argon gas; (40) + (0) = 40 | 1 mole = 40g x 10 = 400g"

or is that something completely different?

That is so wrong ?
The units are confusing me...

the correct way would be:

10 moles of Argon gas
Atomic weight Ar=40au so,
M(1 mole Ar)= 40au x 10 moles=400 g

Na-Avogadro - is a number
mole - is a quantity
au- atomic unit (aka ~mass of a hydrogen atom)
g - gram (metric)

 

[LatexZone]

Could you please give me another example so I can understand it more easily.

Thanks.

Maybe Magnesium?

 

[Lok]

Mg has A=24.2au (that is because there are 3 stable natural isotopes and in different proportins)

so M(mass)=10molesx24.2au=10*Na*24.2au=10*6*10^23*24.2*1.66*10^-27=~242g

mole=Na(Avogadro's)=6.022*10^26
au=1.66*10^-27

 

[Lok]

The ideea is that moles are number, a quantity.

If you multiply a quantity with a mass you get a mass.

10 moles is not equal with 400 g (for argon). The mass of 10 moles is equal to 400g (Ar).

 

[LatexZone]

Yes.. heh, which makes my teacher still right.. 10 moles is the same as the mass of 10 moles :\

But do you know any other examples like mine because the one above is just too confusing and isn't what my teacher expects me to do :P

 

[Dadface]

Look at your periodic table and look at the mass numbers(for the moment forget any numbers that might be fractional)
Hydrogen has mass number 1 which means that one mol of hydrogen has a mass of 1g.
the mass number of helium is 4 which means that 1 mol of He has a mass of 4g
To get 1 mol of Li you need a mass of 7g.To get 1 mol of Be you need a mass of 9g and so on.

 

[LatexZone]

So is this correct what I have put?

Examples:

If I had Argon Gas for example, the Mass of the substance is 40(g). If there were 10 moles of Argon and I wanted to know the total mass, then I would calculate one mole (40) and then times it by 10 = 400g.

If I had Methane as another example and I wanted to find the mass of 3 methane gas moles, I would first need to find the atomic mass of Carbon which is 12 and then 4 Hydrogen's because Methane is CH4 and each hydrogen has an atomic mass of 1. This means that I would then need to add 12 + 4 which gives me 16. This tells me that 1 mole equals to 16. I now need to times this by 3 to get the mass of 3 moles and this equals to 48(g)

 

[Lok]

Yes.. heh, which makes my teacher still right.. 10 moles is the same as the mass of 10 moles :\

That is rasist and ignorant :P

But you can see that it's much easier to remeber that 1 mole of something reacts with 1 mole of something else. Than 24g with 356g.

That is why when I meet Avogadro i'll buy him a beer!

 

[The legend]

If you want there is a good link on wikipedia. I sure liked it:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_number