6.

3 The Mole

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Learning Objectives
• In this lesson, we will focus on two main concepts:

1. How can we easily and quickly quantify (count) large

numbers of objects?

2. What is a mole (the common counting unit used by

chemists)?

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Personal Story
• When I was in high school I worked at Rona Home and Garden.
Once a year, we had to inventory the fasteners (i.e. count every nut,
bolt, nail, and screw in the entire aisle)

• How did we do this in a single day?

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Quantifying Objects Using Mass
• For any large group of identical objects, as long as you know the
mass of a single unit, you can determine the total quantity of objects
by weighing the entire group of objects. You can divide the mass of
the entire group by the mass of a single unit to determine the total
number of items.

• Example
The mass of a single screw is 14.5 g. The mass of an entire bin of
screws (disregarding the mass of the bin itself) is 4686.4 g. How many
screws are in the bin?

4686.4 g
14.5 g = 323.2 screws ≅ 323 screws
1 screw
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Alternate Method of Calculation
• Whenever a calculation is required that converts a value
with a certain set of units into a value with a different set
of units (on the previous slide we had to convert a value
with a unit of “grams” to a value with a unit of “screws”)
there is a general procedure/template that can be
followed:
Conversion factor (relationship)
that gives desired final units
# (starting units) x = # (desired units)

Relationship ? ? Reciprocal Relationship

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Alternate Method of Calculation
• Example
The mass of a single screw is 14.5 g. The mass of an entire bin of
screws (disregarding the mass of the bin itself) is 4686.4 g. How many
screws are in the bin?
Conversion factor (relationship)
that gives desired final units
4686.4 g x 1 screw = 323.2 screws ≅ 323 screws
14.5 g
Relationship X  Reciprocal Relationship
14.5 g 1 screw
1 screw 14.5 g

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Alternate Method of Calculation - Practice
• Example
The average mass of a single almond is 1.35 g. The mass of an entire
bag of almonds (disregarding the mass of the bag itself) is 237.42 g.
How many almonds are in the bag?
Conversion factor (relationship)
that gives desired final units
237.42 g x 1 almond = 175.87 almonds ≅ 176 almonds
1.35 g
Relationship X  Reciprocal Relationship
1.35 g 1 almond
1 almond 1.35 g

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Alternate Method of Calculation - Practice
• Example
The average mass of a single bean is 2.84 g. A customer puts 476
beans into a bag. What is the total mass of all of the beans in the bag?

Conversion factor (relationship)

that gives desired final units
476 beans x 2.84 g = 1351.84 g ≅ 1350 g
1 bean
Relationship  X Reciprocal Relationship
2.84 g 1 bean
1 bean 2.84 g

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The Mole – A Counting Unit for Chemists
• There are many common counting units that are used to
take many individual items and group them into larger
collections.

Counting Unit Description

1 pair 2 (socks)
1 dozen 12 (donuts)
1 century 100 (years)
1 ream 500 (sheets of paper)

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The Mole – A Counting Unit for Chemists
• Because chemists must quantify atoms and molecules,
which are very small and often present in enormous
numbers, chemists common counting unit is much larger
than the counting units from the previous slide…
• 1 mole (symbol: mol) is approximately:
1 mol = 602 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 particles
1 mol = 6.02 x 1023 particles
• The numerical quantity of the mole was arbitrarily defined
as the number of atoms in a sample of exactly 12 g of
carbon-12.
• The value 6.02 x 1023 is often referred to as Avogadro’s
constant or Avogadro’s number and is denoted as NA

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The Mole – A Counting Unit for Chemists
• The image below compares a sample of 1 mol of carbon atoms to a sample
of 1 mol of sulfur atoms

• Since each sample contains 1 mol of substance, each has the same number
of atoms. However, because a single atom of sulfur is both heavier and
larger in volume than a single atom of carbon, 1 mol of sulfur atoms is
heavier and takes up more space than 1 mol of carbon atoms.
• In chemistry, amount (n) refers to the number of particles. The SI unit for
this quantity is the mole. Each sample above has the same amount of
substance, 1 mol.
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