Moles

                           

 This past week in my chemistry class we have been going over moles and how to use it. A mole is a unit of measurement that shows the amount of something. For example, 1 mole of carbon-12 has a mass of 12g. This is also the molar mass. The molar mass is the mass of 1 mol of a substance. To find the molar mass of an element we find the mass number of the element on the periodic table. To find the molar mass in a chemical formula one needs to find the formula weight. The formula weight will be the same number as the molar mass. The only difference is that formula weight is in amu while molar mass is in grams. Here is a link of an example of how to calculate the formula weight http://chemistry.about.com/od/workedchemistryproblems/a/Molecular-Formula-Simplest-Formula-Example-Problem-1.htm .

 Moles also provide a bridge from the molecular scale to the real-world. To do this one must know Avogadro's number. Avogadro's number is 6.02 x 10^23. The diagram to the right shows how to use moles. Some of the mole relationships are  that 1 mole of atoms, ions, or molecules contains Avogadro's number in those particles and 1 mole of molecules or formula units contains Avogadro's number times the number of atoms or ions of each element in the compound. To understand more about moles and to figure them out here is a link to a  website http://misterguch.brinkster.net/molecalculations.html.