Question #322e6

1 Answer
Aug 15, 2015

You have 1221 gram-atoms in 49 kg of "X".

Explanation:

In your case, I think that the number of gram-atoms is actually equal to the number of moles. A gram-atom is simply the quantity of a substance that contains Avogadro's number of atoms.

When you're dealing with an element that's made up of individual atoms rather than molecules, the gram-atom is equal to the mole.

In other words, one mole of helium will contain 6.022 * 10^(23 atoms of helium and will be equal to one gram-atom of helium.

On the other hand, one mole of oxygen gas, "O"_2, contains 6.022 * 10^(23) molecules of oxygen. Since you get 2 atoms of oxygen per molecule of oxygen, one mole of oxygen gas would contain 2 * 6.022 * 10^(23) atoms of oxygen.

This means that one mole of oxygen molecules is equal to 2 gram-atoms of oxygen.

In your case, you have element "X". This tells you that element "X" is made up of atoms, not molecules.

So, use Avogadro's number to determine the mass of one mole of "X" atoms

6.022 * 10^(23)color(red)(cancel(color(black)("atoms"))) * (6.664 * 10^(-23)"g")/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("atom")))) = "40.13 g"

So one mole of "X" has a mass of "40.13 g". Now all you have to do is figure out how many moles of "X" you get in 49 kg

49color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kg"))) * "100 g"/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kg")))) = 49 * 10^3"g"

This means that you have

49 * 10^(3)color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g"))) * "1 mole of X"/(40.13color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g")))) = color(green)("1221 moles of X"

Therefore, 49 kg of element "X" will contain 1221 gram-atoms of "X".