Question

Mercury has an atomic mass of 200.59 amu. calculate the mass of 3.0 x 10^10 atoms

Answer 1

To determine mass of the given number of atoms of mercury, we need a factor that would relate the number of atoms to number of moles. In this case, we use the Avogadro's number. It is a number that represents the number of units in one mole of any substance. This has the value of 6.022 x 10^23 units / mole. The number of units could be atoms, molecules, ions or electrons. To convert into mass, we use the given amu of mercury since it is equal to grams per mole. We calculate as follows:

3.0 x 10^10 atoms ( 1 mol / 6.022 x 10^23 atoms ) ( 200.59 g / 1 mol ) = 9.99x10^-12 g Hg