Moles and Molecules

First things first, Mole is not the short form of Molecules. They are different things. The concept of this can be confusing, so we recommend you to take a look at this article first. _____________________________________________________________________ Here are some words the indicate a certain quantity of something:

Dozen: 12

Pairs: 2

Hundred: 100

Sh*tload: ???

Obviously I'm joking with the last one but you get what I mean: all these words indicate a certain quantity of things. If I say I have a dozen eggs, I have 12 eggs. If I say my brother has six pair of pink socks, then he has 6*2=12 pink socks.

1 mole is something similar in chemistry. Similar to a dozen or a pair, one mole simply means there are 6.02*10^23 of something. So if I have 1 mole of eggs, I have 6.02 x 10^23 eggs. Simple. The short form of mole is mol.

Mole = 6.02*10^23

If you want to get really fancy, this number is known as the Avogadro Constant, in the honor of Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro.

1 mole = 6.02*10^23 molecues. Remember this!

So how do we find out how many molecues are there in 1 mole? Easy!

No. of Moles * Avogadro Constant = No. of Molecues

Just like this: how many eggs are there in 3 dozens? 3*12=36

Here are some examples:

1 mole of carbon = 6.02*10^23 carbon molecues

1 mole of uranium = 6.02*10^23 uranium molecues

1 mole of iridium = 6.02*10^23 iridium molecues

When you see moles and molecues, the element, compound, or mixture does not matter! There will still be 6.02*10^23 molecues!

What if there are 2, 3, 7, 9, 20, 100 moles? Just multiply the molecues by that value!

Avogadro Constant*Number of Moles

3 moles of Thulium = 3*6.02*10^23 = 1.806^24

50 moles of Erbium = 50*6.02*10^23 = 3.011^25

1000 moles of Antimony = 1000*6.02*10^23 = 6.022^26

You get the idea.

(Still stuck? One way to imagine this is if 1 truck contains 12 kangaroos, then 12 trucks would contain 144 kangaroos! Just replace "trucks" with "moles", and "kangaroos" with "molecues"! Oh and obviously replace "12" with Avogadro Constant.)

From molecues back to moles?

Number of Molecues/Avogadro's Constant

4.215^24 molecues of Osmium = 4.215^24/6.02*10^23 = 7 moles of Osmium

5.41^24 molecues of water = 9 moles of water

(Still stuck? Remember the trucks? This time, let's say "how many trucks if there are 96 kangaroos?" Well, just divide 96 by 12, because each truck has 12 kangaroos, and you will see there are 8 trucks. Don't overcomplicate it! It is just SIMPLE DIVISION!)

The Big Fat Formula

Moles*Avogadro's Constant = Molecues Rearrange to get the answer you want!