Moles in chemistry

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Hey guys. I’m struggling to understand the concept of moles, and was hoping someone could explain it a lot easier than in previous posts. I understand that a mole of something means that there is 6.022 x 10\^23 of that something (similar to the idea of 1 dozen = 12 things), but I don’t quite understand when for example 1 mole of Nitrogen is 14g.

If 1 mole of nitrogen means that there is 6.022 x 10\^23 nitrogen atoms, how does 1 mole of nitrogen equal 14g? Is it saying that 6.022 x 10\^23 nitrogen atoms (1 mole of nitrogen) is equal to 14g, since the mass of a nitrogen atom (single nitrogen atom) would be super small, and so we use moles to convert it into a reasonable mass for easier calculations e.g. 14g?

Hope that wasn’t too confusing :S

Thanks everyone! 🙂

In: Chemistry

25 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Mol, without the e, is a named quantity, like “dozen”.

When you say you have a mol of carbon atoms, that’s like saying you have a dozen carbon atoms. Well, the number is a lot more than 12, but it works the same way. As you say, it makes the masses easier to talk about because the mass of a dozen nitrogen atoms would still be very, very small.

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