Chemistry problem - No answers, I want help with setting it up. Thanks.?

Question

How many moles of C atoms are in 1 mol of Sucrose (C12H22O11)?

How many C atoms are in are in 1 mol of Sucrose?


The word "atom" and throws me off. Is there anyone that can exlain?

Thanks Guys!

Sorry Dragon, I am still lost. The word "atom" and "Molecules" are words that I use interchangebly. Is one a larger amount? Could you provide me with another example?

Answer 1

You look at the formula for the compound of interest; for sucrose, the formula is: C12H22O11, so for each molecule of sucrose there are 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms and 11 oxygen atoms. Thus, If you have one mole of sucrose molecules and each molecule has 12 carbon atoms... you should be able to do it now.

Added: First, stop using atom and molecule as the same thing! An atom is the smallest piece of an element you can possibly have; anything smaller would be fragments of an atom and would not have the same properties as the parent material. A molecule is a group of atoms bonded together (they can be the same element, or many different elements only 2, or 100's, 1000's and even larger). Some examples: two oxygen atoms pair up to make a molecule of oxygen gas (O2); 4 hydrogen atoms and one carbon atom can form a molecule of methane (CH4) etc. The difference between atom and molecule should have been described near the beginning of your elementary chemisty text, you might want to go back and review it; they can probably describe it better than I can. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

One molecule of sucrose contains 12 atoms of carbon.

Now how many dozen carbon atoms does a dozen molecules of sucrose contain?

A mole is a number of things just like a dozen is, but it is 6.02 * 10^23 things rather than 12 things.