Final answer:
To determine the number of Hg atoms in an 8024 amu sample, we must know mercury's atomic mass. The sample contains a specific number of moles, found by dividing the mass of the sample by mercury's atomic mass, then multiplying by Avogadro's number to get the total Hg atoms.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the number of Hg atoms present in a sample that has a mass of 8024 amu, we need to know the average mass of one mercury atom in atomic mass units (amu), which can be referred to as the atomic mass and is equivalent to the molar mass of mercury when expressed in grams per mole.
The periodic table tells us that the atomic number of mercury (Hg) is 80, which means it has 80 protons. Mercury has a mass number of 200.59, which can be used as the atomic mass or as the molar mass (200.59 g/mol) when determining the number of moles in a given mass of mercury. Since the atomic mass unit (amu) is based on the twelfth of the mass of carbon-12 atom, and one mole of any element contains 6.02 x 10^23 atoms (Avogadro's number), we can use this information to calculate the number of atoms.
For example, 200.59 amu will represent one atom of mercury, and since Avogadro's constant defines the number of particles in one mole, we can find out how many mercury atoms are in 8024 amu by using the following steps:
- Divide the total mass in amu by the atomic mass of mercury to calculate the number of moles: 8024 amu / 200.59 amu/mol.
- Multiply the number of moles by Avogadro's number to find the total number of atoms: moles x 6.02 x 10^23 atoms/mol.