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Ch.2 - Atoms & Elements
All textbooksTro 4th EditionCh.2 - Atoms & ElementsProblem 111
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Chapter 2, Problem 111

Suppose that atomic masses were based on the assignment of a mass of 12.000 g to 1 mol of carbon, rather than 1 mol of 12C. What would the atomic mass of oxygen be? (The atomic masses of carbon and oxygen, based on the assignment of 12.000 g to 1 mol of 12C, are 12.011 amu and 15.9994 amu, respectively.)

Verified step by step guidance
1
Understand that the current atomic mass unit (amu) is based on assigning exactly 12 amu to one mole of 12C atoms.
Recognize that the problem asks us to consider a hypothetical situation where 1 mole of carbon atoms (not just 12C) is assigned a mass of 12.000 g.
Calculate the average atomic mass of carbon based on its isotopic composition, which is currently 12.011 amu.
Determine the ratio of the hypothetical atomic mass of carbon (12.000 g/mol) to the current atomic mass (12.011 amu/mol).
Apply this ratio to the current atomic mass of oxygen (15.9994 amu) to find its new atomic mass under the hypothetical system.
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Textbook Question

A penny has a thickness of approximately 1.0 mm. If you stacked Avogadro's number of pennies one on top of the other on Earth's surface, how far would the stack extend (in km)? [For comparison, the sun is about 150 million km from Earth and the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is about 40 trillion km from Earth.]

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Textbook Question

Consider the stack of pennies in the previous problem. How much money (in dollars) would this represent? If this money were equally distributed among the world's population of 7.0 billion people, how much would each person receive? Would each person be a millionaire? A billionaire? A trillionaire?

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Textbook Question

The mass of an average blueberry is 0.75 g and the mass of an automobile is 2.0×103 kg. Find the number of automobiles whose total mass is the same as 1.0 mol of blueberries.

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Textbook Question

A pure titanium cube has an edge length of 2.78 in. How many titanium atoms does it contain? Titanium has a density of 4.50 g/cm3.

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Textbook Question

A pure copper sphere has a radius of 0.935 in. How many copper atoms does it contain? [The volume of a sphere is (4/3)πr3 and the density of copper is 8.96 g/cm3.]

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Open Question
What is the radius (in cm) of a pure copper sphere that contains 1.14 * 10^24 copper atoms? [The volume of a sphere is (4/3)πr^3 and the density of copper is 8.96 g/cm^3.]