Mole-Gram Calculations

One of the things you will do throughout this course is to work back
and forth between mass in grams and the amount of material in
moles. In order to convert back and forth between mass and moles,
you simply need to use the same kind of conversion calculations that
you have done before. I'll work through two examples (these are also
shown in your workbook as Example 7), then you can practice the
calculations yourself in Exercise 8 in your workbook.

The task is to express 45 grams of

carbon in moles. There are different
45 g C = ? moles C
ways of accomplishing that task. We'll
use the conversion factor approach.
We start with 45 grams of carbon. We
want to find out how many moles we
x? moles C
have, so we need a relationship 45 g C = ? moles C
?gC
between the number of grams of carbon
and the number of moles.
That relationship is simply that 12.0
grams of carbon is one mole. So we set x 1 mole
up the calculation with 45 grams of 45 g C C = ? moles C
carbon times the conversion factor of 12.0 g C
one mole over 12.0 grams of carbon.
Carry out the calculations and we get
3.8 moles. In this case we round off the x 1 mole
answer to two significant digits, 3.8, 45 g C C = 3.8 moles C
because the initial value of 45 g has just 12.0 g C
two significant digits.
If we had known that there were 45.0
grams of carbon, then we would have x 1 mole
= 3.75 moles
given the answer as 3.75 moles. You 45. 0 g C C
C
still have to remember to keep working 12.0 g C
with significant digits.
Along that same line, if we had started 45. 00 g C x 1 mole = 3.75 moles
with 45.00 grams of carbon, and we C C
wanted our answer to be more precise 12.0 g C
than 3.75, we wouldn't be able to use
12.0 grams of carbon in the conversion
factor. The precision of the atomic
weights is in the weight value rather
than the mole value. When we say that
one mole of carbon weighs 12.0 grams,
we mean that exactly one mole of
carbon weighs 12.0 grams when
measured to three significant digits. So
the answer is rounded off to the
number of digits shown in the atomic
weight or in the starting value, not in
the 1 mole.
To get four digits of precision in the
answer, we would have to look up a
more precise atomic weight in order to
get the 4th digit there, which is 12.01.
So any time that you want to work with
x 1 mole
numbers that are more precise than 3
C = 3.747 moles
digits, you will have to look up an 45. 00 g C
12.01 g C
atomic weight that is more precise than
C
just 3 digits. Remember that these
atomic weights are measured values.
They are not exact, except for that one
particular isotope of carbon called
carbon-12.

Next, consider the question "How

much would 3.53 moles of iron
weigh?" Here we are trying to change 3.53 moles Fe = ? g Fe
from moles to grams, so 3.53 moles
of iron is out in front.
The relationship between moles of
iron and grams of iron is 1 mole for
every 55.8 grams of iron. So that's
x 55.8 g Fe
what goes in the conversion factor 3.53 moles Fe = ? g Fe
1 mole Fe
with the grams on top and the moles
on the bottom, so that the moles
cancel out.
When you multiply that through, you x 55.8 g Fe
3.53 moles Fe = 197 g Fe
get 197 grams of iron. 1 mole Fe

These conversion calculations relating moles and grams are the same
kind of calculations that you have worked with before. It is just that
now you are dealing with another unit--a mole--that you may have
never heard of before.
As you know from lesson 1a, many units can be abbreviated; so "gram"
becomes "g", "liter" becomes "l" or "L", and so on. Many students want
to abbreviate "mole" as "m", forgetting that we use "m" to stand for
"meter". The abbreviation for "mole" is "mol" - not much of an
abbreviation at all!

Practice with Mole-Gram Calculations

Before you continue with the lesson, work through the 4 problems in
exercise 8. Check your answers below before continuing. If you have
any trouble, check with the instructor. (If you would like to try some
additional problems of this type, you will find several in a "Practice
Problems" page in the Wrap-Up for this lesson. Click here to go there
now.)

Answers

OK, here are the answers that you should have for the problems in
Exercise 8. "A" is 3.6 grams of carbon. "B" is 2.2 x 102 gram of
potassium. My calculations came out to 215, but since 5.5 is only good
to 2 digits, I rounded the answer off to 220. Then to show that the
zero was not significant I converted the answer to scientific notation.
"C" is 1.58 moles of fluorine. "D" is 2.4 moles of nitrogen. So, you
should have those values. If you did not come up with those answers,
you should take some time now to work with the instructor and find
out what kinds of problems are keeping you from getting those
answers.

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E-mail instructor: Sue Eggling

Clackamas Community College

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