How many molecules of carbon dioxide exit your lungs when you exhale 5.00 xx 10^2 mol of carbon dioxide, "CO"_2 ?

1 Answer
Stefan V.
Mar 4, 2017

3.01 * 10^(26)"molecules CO"_2

Explanation:

Your tool of choice here is Avogadro's constant, which essentially acts as the definition of a mole

color(blue)(ul(color(black)("1 mole CO"_2 = 6.022 * 10^(23)color(white)(.)"molecules CO"_2))) -> Avogadro's constant

So, a mole is essentially a group of things. In this case, a mole of carbon dioxide will contain 6.022 * 10^(23) molecules of carbon dioxide. In other words, in order to have 1 mole of carbon dioxide, you need to have 6.022 * 10^(23) molecules of carbon dioxide.

You know that 5.00 * 10^(2) molecules of carbon dioxide are exhaled from the lungs when we breathe out. You can use Avogadro's constant as a conversion factor to help you figure out how many molecules are present

5.00 * 10^2 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("moles CO"_2))) * (6.022 * 10^(23)color(white)(.)"molecules CO"_2)/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mole CO"_2))))

= color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(3.01 * 10^(26)color(white)(.)"molecules CO"_2)))

The answer is rounded to three sig figs.

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