Saturday, October 17, 2015

Avogadro's Number And The Mole

Avogadro's Number:

Avogadro's Number/Avogadro's Constant (symbols: LNA) is simply a number, 6.022×1023 presented by Amedeo Avogadro. It can be used in different formulae to find things like the number of atoms in something. 

Mole:

Common Definition:

Mole means the amount of substance (mass) that contains 6.022×1023 particles (atoms, molecules or formula units). It's symbol is "mol".

Simplified:

In daily life, when you say "1 dozen of eggs" you mean "12 eggs". Just like that in chemistry when someone says one mole of particles, he/she means 6.022×1023 particles
So,
In chemistry, 1 mole = 6.022×1023 just like 1 dozen = 12 in daily life.

Now, Mole means how much mass of something is made up of 6.022×1023 particles.

 For example:

1 mole of water means "How much water is made up of 6.022×1023 molecules of water?", which is 18 grams of water!
It means there are 6.022×1023 molecules of H2O in 18 grams of water (about half a glass of water).

Similarly, 2 moles of water means "How much water is made up of 2 times 6.022×1023 molecules (2 x 6.022×1023 molecules of water) ?", which is 36 grams of water!
It means there are 6.022×1023 molecules of water in 36 grams of water (about a full glass of water).
Like this 3, 4 and 5 moles of water mean How much water has 3 x NA 4 x NA and 5 x NA molecules of water respectively and so on!

6.02 x 10^23  atoms, molecules or formula units (depending on what you are talking about) are present in 1 mole.
For example:
1 mole of H atoms means 6.02 x 10^23 H atoms.
1 mole of H2O molecules means 6,.02 x 10^23 molecules of H2O (i.e. 6.02 x 10^23 O atoms and 2 x 6.02 x 10^23 H atoms.


1 mole of NaCl means 6.02 x 10^23 formula units of NaCl (i.e. 6.02 x 10^23 Na cations and 6.02 x 10^23 Cl anions).

Facts about the mole:

There are some interesting facts about the mole:

1.)A computer counting with a speed of 10 million atoms per second would take 2 billion years to count one mole of atoms.

2.)If one mole of marbles were spread over the surface of Earth, our planet would be covered with a 3 miles thick layer of marbles.

3.)10 moles of water molecules are more than the grains of sand in the Sahara desert.


1 comment:

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