Why is the atomic mass unit (amu), rather than the gram, used to express atomic mass?

1 Answer

Because atoms are ridiculously small.

And the #'amu'# is numerically equivalent to the #'g/mol'#. For instance, if I were to be so lucky as to isolate #'1 atom'# of #'N'#, it would have a mass of

For example, one atom of helium-4 has a mass of 4.0026 amu. An atom of sulfur-32 has a mass of 31.972 amu. Mass spectrometer schematic. The carbon-12 atom has six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus for a mass number of 12. Since the nucleus accounts for nearly all of the mass of the atom, a single proton or single neutron has a. The original standard of atomic weight, established in the 19th century, was hydrogen, with a value of 1. From about 1900 until 1961, oxygen was used as the reference standard, with an assigned value of 16. The unit of atomic mass was thereby defined as 1 / 16 the mass of an oxygen atom. In 1929 it was discovered that natural oxygen contains.

#14.007 cancel'amu' xx (1.6605 xx 10^(-24) 'g')/(cancel'1 amu')#

Value Of 1 Amu

#= ul(2.326 xx 10^(-23) 'g')#

which is immeasurably small. We don't care for masses that small because we physically can't see or measure it. Instead, we care for masses we can touch, like #'1.000 g'# or #'12.50 g'#.

And that involves:

#1.000 cancel'g N' xx cancel'1 mol N'/(14.007 cancel'g N') xx (6.022 xx 10^23)/(cancel'1 mol')#

#= ul(4.299 xx 10^22 'N atoms')#

#12.50 cancel'g N' xx cancel'1 mol N'/(14.007 cancel'g N') xx (6.022 xx 10^23)/(cancel'1 mol')#

Busycal ios. #= ul(5.374 xx 10^23 'N atoms')#

You can clearly tell that this number of atoms is impossible to count. And so Avogadro's number, #6.022 xx 10^23 'mol'^(-1)#, was invented to describe this many particles..

#4.299 xx 10^22##'N atoms' xx ('1 mol')/(6.022 xx 10^23)# Minecraft for imac.

#=##ul'0.0714 mols N'#

Value Of 1 Amu

#5.374 xx 10^23##'N atoms' xx ('1 mol')/(6.022 xx 10^23)#

#=##ul'0.8924 mols N'#

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Find The Value Of 1 Amu In Grams

And as you can see, these numbers look much nicer and more physically useful.

Value Of 1 Amu In Kg

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