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If I have 3.87 x 10^22 grains of rice, do I have more than a mole or less than a mole?

1 Answer

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A mole is composed of 6.022 x 10²³ units. these units could be atoms making up an element or molecules making up a compound.

In this case 1 mol of rice would be composed of 6.022 x 10²³ rice grains

the value given is 3.87 x 10²² grains of rice. Since we have to compare 6.022 x 10²³ and 3.87 x 10²² we have to bring them to the same exponent of 10.

so lets convert 6.022 x 10²³

in 6.022 x 10²³ can be rewritten as 6.022 x 10¹ x 10²² since we need the exponent of 10 to be 22

then 6.022 x 10 = 60.22

Therefore it can be written as 60.22 x 10²²

Now we can compare 3.87 x 10²² and 60.22 x 10²²

since exponent of 10 is equal , we have to compare the figures 3.87 and 60.22

since 3.87 < 60.22

we can see that 3.87 x 10²² is less than the number of rice grains that would be make up a mole.

therefore the number of rice grains is less than a mole

User George Antonakos
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