Accelerated Chemistry Blog #3

Recently, in Accelerated Chemistry, we have been learning about many interesting and amazing topics.  The first of these topics is relative mass.  Relative mass is the idea that masses of different elements are based off of the mass of different element.  In the Periodic Table of Elements, atomic masses for the different elements are relative masses that are based on, or relative to, Carbon, or C-12. 

How Much Water Can
He Fit In His Mouth?

The next topics we discussed were the biggest and most important in the chapter.  These were the topics of Avogadro's Number, the mole, and molar mass.  Avogadro's Number, or a mole, is 6.02x10²³ of anything.  Molar mass is the mass, in grams, of 1 mole of a specific kind of atoms or molecules.  The atomic masses of the elements on the periodic table tell you the mass of 1 mole of atoms of that element in grams.  For example, for every 1 mole of mercury (Hg), there are 200.6 g of mass.  In order to better understand this concept, we performed mole problems as a class and in small groups.  Later, we performed an experiment (shown to the left) in which we had to use a mole to help us calculate how many water molecules we could fit in our mouths and how many tin cans were needed to contain 8.79x10²⁴ atoms of tin.  Through our work in groups and as a class, I now better understand the concept of moles and how to solve problems  and calculations with them.

The final topic we covered was that of percentage composition.  You can discover what percentage a single element is of the total compound by one of two ways.  The first way you can do this is by using relative mass data.  By knowing how much the total compound weighs versus how much it weighs without a specific element, you can determine what percentage of the compound was made of that element.  The second way to find percentage composition is through the formula.  By finding the total mass of the compound using the periodic table, and then finding the mass of each individual element, you can find the what percentage the element is of the total.

During this chapter I personally found the topic of a mole extremely fascinating.  By doing the mole calculations and making my mole poster, I was truly amazed to find how large a mole actually is.  Even though I do understand the concepts better , I still find it hard to comprehend that such a small mass of each element contains that many tiny atoms.  As a whole, this chapter was very eye-opening and insightful.