Suppose you are going to make hotdogs, and the ingredients you are provided with are 2 kg of sausages and 1 kg of hotdog buns - other than sauces and spices.
So how are you going to decide whether the hotdogs buns and sausages are enough for each other and no individual sausage or bun is left?
Well, when it comes to practicality, you have to consider quantity in units, not in mass. So instead of quantifying your ingredients in kg, you would calculate them in numbers. The same is the case in stoichiometry:
While balancing equations you have to consider quantity in grams instead of moles.
In this article, we would go through the impacts of calculating grams to moles during equation balancing.
What is Mole?
In chemistry, the universal measurement of a quantity is the mole. It is a very big unit of quantity, as the atoms and molecules are extremely small units to count. So we quantify elements and compounds in a bigger measurement, the moles instead.
A mole of a substance contains Avogadro's number of molecules in it which equals 6.022 x 1023. Just as a dozen of eggs contain 12 eggs in it, similarly if we replace dozen by mole. Then by having a mole of eggs we would have 6.022 x 1023 amount of eggs.
Converting Grams to Moles
Albeit, it is quite impossible to measure how much quantity of moles is present in a substance.
So in order to measure the moles, it is necessary to first calculate the molar mass and then convert it into moles. The molar mass is the mass of substance present in one mole of a substance.
To calculate the molar mass of a substance, we have to multiply the relative atomic mass of the substance by the molar constant. Moreover, the molar mass constant could also be used to convert grams to moles.
After having the molar mass of your substance, the next step in calculating the moles is to divide the number of grams by the molar mass of the substance.
The molar mass, however, is not a molecular property of a substance, instead, it's a bulk property.
Impact of Converting Grams to Moles
There is a huge significance of interconversion of grams and moles and it should be done very precisely as it is the basis of stoichiometry. When we know or have calculated the molecular/atomic mass of the substance/s the conversion process is as simple as a pie.
Since we are provided with the amount of substance in grams and we are required to convert it. Through the conversion process, we get a precise calculation of the number of molecules present in substances.
We need to balance the chemical equation of a reaction. We know that during stoichiometric calculations and chemical equation balancing, we have to be very careful regarding the number of molecules and atoms in a substance. When we exactly know the number of atoms and molecules, we can efficiently and accurately balance our chemical equations.
Moreover, if we consider the mass or amount of substance without converting them to moles, it would balance our chemical equation. This happens because the mass of substances varies among different molecules.
Recalling the previous knowledge that the molar mass is used as a conversion factor and could be calculated from the chemical formula, the conversion factor or molar mass also facilitates the grams to moles conversion.
Now we can answer what is the significance of converting gram to the mole. So, in a chemical equation that is needed to be balanced, the number 1 mole of a substance quantity corresponds to the molecule's molecular weight in grams.
It's a conversion factor that lets us interchange moles and grams.