S1, Ep 4: Always convert to moles!

Caroline Christian, Ph.D.

A short MC choice quiz - What is a mole?

a. A cute woodland creature
b. A birthmark on the skin
c. A chemistry counting unit that should be utilized when doing any sort of mass or atom conversion
d. All of the above

If you said d, you are correct! I tell my students to always convert to moles first, even if you don't know how to do a problem! This will probably help you understand how to solve the problem. So how do you convert to moles? There are usually two ways to convert to moles. They are illustrated in the following graphic.

Moles are always the middle unit, so everything needs to be converted through moles to get anywhere else. If they give you grams and they want number of atoms, go through moles! If they give you atoms of a certain component of a chemical formula and they want grams of another part of the formula, go through moles!