Questions tagged [units]

For questions about the definition and usage of units of measurement.

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Up to which dilution can one assume that 1 mg/l = 1 ppm?

For aqueous solutions it is often assumed that 1 milligram per liter equals 1 ppm. Are there any guidelines up to which concentration this shortcut is admissible? Are there any formulas which ...
CuriousIndeed's user avatar
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3 answers
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Can I express the rate of a reaction as percent per second (%/s)?

Rate is calculated as change in concentration over change in time, so usually $\pu{M/s}$ $(\pu{mol L-1 s-1}).$ Say, I'm calculating it for $20\%$ solution of ammonium hydroxide, so my final rate is ...
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Regarding units of water potential and chemical potential

If water potential is nothing but the chemical potential of a given solution, then why do their units differ? If the unit for the latter is taken as 'Energy per molecule' (which makes sense to me ...
Ritam Dutta's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
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About the use of pascal or atmosphere in chemistry

I was wondering if there are specific formulae in chemistry for which it is "compulsory" or convenient to use atmosphere (atm) rather than pascal (or even mmHg) as a unit of measurement. Of course, ...
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What is the use of both mol and mass representing the same thing i.e. amount of something? [closed]

A mol is a unit but also has a magnitude. How can a unit have a magnitude? And if mole is used to measure an amount of substance than what does mass measure?
Yashvik gupta's user avatar
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Meaning of mass concentration "units" % m/v [closed]

In a saline solution that is 5.750% (m/v) potassium iodide $(\ce{KI}),$ there are: a) 5.750 mL $\ce{KI}$ per 100.0 mL $\ce{H2O}$ b) 575.0 mg $\ce{KI}$ per 10.00 mL of $\ce{KI}$ solution c) 5.750 g $\...
욕구Desi's user avatar
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Interlayer binding energy: how to convert to meV/Ų?

I've noticed that in most papers the interlayer binding energy is given in units of meV/Ų. But how do I get these units? Do I divide the interlayer binding energy I get by the area of my unit cell?
DykFlint's user avatar
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How is the ln k term in the linearised Arrhenius equation acceptable?

In my syllabus we only study about rate laws under the topic "Rates of reactions", but as I was interested in it, I started to search about that topic. And then I found the Arrhenius equation $$\ln k ...
Damsith Adikari's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
983 views

Units of the rate constant for reactions whose order is greater than 1

In many textbooks, it is written that: The value of rate constant depends on the nature of the reactants, temperature and catalyst. It is independent of the concentration of the reactants. However,...
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Why the term 'unified' in "unified mass unit"? [closed]

Why different unit symbols - amu, u and dalton are used for representing atomic mass? And what does the term 'unified' mean in "unified mass unit"? Thank you.
Pradhuman Sharma's user avatar
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Why is the equilibrium constant unitless? [duplicate]

I read that the equilibrium constant is unitless because the molar activities of each of the species are used in the equilibrium expression, not the actual concentrations themselves. I understand that....
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What does “at%” mean and how it differs from “mol%”?

Sorry if my question is a bit obvious, but for some reason I'm getting confused with the percentages in this question: Concentration of $\ce{A}$ is $\pu{80 at\%}$ and concentration of $\ce{B}$ is $...
dareToDiffer07's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
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Soil conductivity: How do I get a near equivalent between meq/100 g to mS/cm?

I have two soil reports, one that reports CEC as 45 meq/100 g and another that reports 6 mS/cm using 1:1 water soil. I can see that the two are, if not apples and oranges, they are at best tangerines ...
Sherwood Botsford's user avatar
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Can Rydberg constant be in joules?

In my textbook (Chemistry Part - I for Class XI published by NCERT), there is an equation for the energy of an electron in an energy state: $$E_n = -R_\mathrm H\left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right)$$ and there ...
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How do I convert salinity measured in mg/L Cl into parts per thousand as NaCl?

I have collected water data using a refractometer that records salinity in ‰ (parts per thousand) as $\ce{NaCl}$. I want to compare my data to other data but every journal article I read has the ...
Sarah Lynch's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
226 views

How will the periodic table change due to redefinition of the kilogram (May 2019)?

The definition of a kilogram has recently been changed. What effect, if any, will this change have on data on the periodic table?
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Barron states that 4.18×10⁸ joules equal 1 kcal, is this correct?

Here is a paragraph in Barron's SAT chemistry prep book: Work itself is measured in Joules, and so is energy. In some problems, however, energy may be expressed in kilocalories. The relationship ...
Luke Kong's user avatar
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2 answers
3k views

How are lowercase k and uppercase K used in general chemistry courses? [closed]

Where do lowercase k and uppercase K make appearances in general chemistry, and what do they signify?
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How are lowercase m and uppercase M used in general chemistry courses? [closed]

Where do lowercase m and uppercase M make appearances in general chemistry, and what do they signify?
Karsten's user avatar
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IUPAC Recommendations for Concentration Units (ppb, ppm)

In a recent interesting post, (Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg?) it was pointed out that IUPAC advises to abandon parts per million, parts per billion quantities and instead it suggests to employ micromole/ ...
AChem's user avatar
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Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg?

In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I ...
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How to determine omitted units in a publication

I have found a 1954 paper in J. Am. Chem. Soc. which gives various temperatures in degrees but does not specify units. A snippet of the introduction is: Titanium reacts appreciably with fluorine ...
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Does the prefix of an inverted unit also get inverted?

What is the energy of radiation that has a frequency of $\pu{2.51 \times 10^11 ms-1}$? (a) $\pu{1.66 \times 10^-19 J}$ (supposedly correct) (b) $\pu{1.66 \times 10^-22 J}$ (c) $\pu{7.92 \times 10^-37 ...
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Standard litres to kg conversion for Hydrogen [closed]

When looking at hydrogen fuel tanks, they often give the capacity in terms of "standard litres". However, I can't find a definition of what this is. I assumed this may mean a litre of hydrogen gas ...
PhysicsGuy123's user avatar
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2 answers
167 views

Unit analysis for neutralization reaction

What volume of $\pu{0.500 mol L-1}$ $\ce{HCl}$ (in $\pu{mL}$) is required to neutralize $\pu{2.02 g}$ of solid $\ce{NaOH}$ pellets? So far I have tried regular unit analysis: 2.02 g NaOH * 1mol ...
user76569's user avatar
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1 answer
660 views

Types of concentration units

I would like to ask about a concentration unit. What does it exactly mean when stock concentration of something is, for example, 5X? Thank you in advance!
Tereza Papežová's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
242 views

What will be unit of volume in V=nRT/p if p is in Torr instead of atm? [closed]

$V=nRT/p$, where $n$ is amount of gas in $\mathrm{mol}$, $R$ is gas constant, $V$ is volume in $\pu{dm3}$, and $p$ is pressure in $\pu{atm}$. What happens to $R$ if $p$ is in $\pu{Torr}$ instead of $...
Ab.Moiz's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
249 views

How to actually calculate work from force times distance?

I understand that work = force $\cdot$ distance, but I'm not sure of the units and conversions to use. What I know is that I have a piston head of area $\pu{28cm^2}$ (~$\pu{4.4in^2}$) traveling a ...
GGizmos's user avatar
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Conversion from a PPB value to µg/m3 of Isobutylene

I have a quite simple problem, found a lot of information about it, but I am not sure anymore if I do my calculations right. I own a sensor, which reports measurements in isobutylene units as PPB. So ...
Flovdis's user avatar
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1 answer
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Combination of several unit symbols when finding new pressure from ideal gas law

As a car is driven, the tires heat up and the volume and the pressure change. Calculate the new pressure of a 35.0 L tire initially at 235 kPa that expands to 36.5 L when it heats up from 15.0 °C to ...
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4 votes
3 answers
474 views

Is the negative excess volume of ethanol/water the cause of my math error?

I have a binary mixture, say ethanol at $90\%wt$ ethanol, $10\%wt$ water. According to Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook 9th Ed., that mixture has a density of $0.81797g/cc$ (at $20^{\circ}C$). ...
realityChemist's user avatar
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22k views

What are the units of Kc and Kp?

They are both equilibrium constants as far as I know. Kc is in terms of molarity and Kp is in terms of pressure. Also both of them are ratios of respective quantities [ ratio of molarity(s) in Kc and ...
Gamira's user avatar
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1 answer
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Confusion between moles and molarity units

I am a total newbie in the field and i would like some kind of guidance. So, I have been recently given 2 datasets with measurements regarding several phospholipid fatty acids of plasma HDL. Both ...
Panagiotis Togias's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
33 views

Rate constant converion [closed]

I need to calculate the half life for a first order reaction for which I need the rate constant $k$. From literature I observed that for a very closely simulated experiment I obtained the numerical ...
Pat Srikanth's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
75 views

Converting pounds to grams [closed]

I wanted to figure out how many grams were to a lb and instead of looking it up I used my textbook and found 1 kg = 1000 g and 1 kg = 2.205 lb. I set up a cross multiplication equation to solve for x. ...
astridonkey's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
3k views

What does atm•L mean? [closed]

In my chemistry book I always see a dot for units. For example, atm•L. Does this mean “1 atm per Liter?” By Atm I mean atmospheric pressure, not atom.
user64524's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
86 views

Is the kilogram still consistent with the old definition?

My old understanding was that a gram is the amount of mass in a cubic centimeter of water. But then I recently learned that the second was redefined to be some 9 billion cycles of a Caesium atom. ...
user51819's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
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Is it possible for me to derive Avogadro's number?

To my understanding the mole is the unit used to translate between mass on the atomic level and mass in the macro level, defined as the number of atoms in $12$ grams of Carbon-$12$, which apparently ...
user51819's user avatar
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26 votes
5 answers
15k views

Why do we still need to know about the Rankine temperature scale?

I am learning process principles in chemical engineering and I was taught various temperature units like Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin, and Rankine. I see the first three being used quite commonly, but ...
Pritt says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
109 views

Why was the unit micrometers spelled backwards in old research papers?

I have recently been doing a literature research project on polymers and have been reading a lot of papers from the 1950s and 1960s (mostly in American journals from American authors). I saw this ...
iammax's user avatar
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-1 votes
1 answer
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Units for density in nanorod image

I am counting the number of nanorods contained in a sample (see picture below). The length scale is 1 µm. What units does the density have? Is it µm-2?
Sham SY's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
187 views

How to convert from ppm to ug/m3 in case of PMx?

For $\text{PM}_{10}$, $\text{PM}_{2.5}$ sensors, sensitivity, minimum and maximum recordable concentrations are generally expressed in $\pu{ppm}$ (parts per million) while legislation uses $\pu{\mu g /...
Francesco Boi's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
2k views

Conversion of a permeability value from barrer to SI unit

I have done a permeability experiment on LDPE in the presence of air. At $\pu{30^\circ C}$, the permeability was found to be 1.846 barrer. Now I am trying to apply this permeability value to a ...
I.vdM's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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is rydberg constant and rydberg unit are same? [closed]

i want to ask a question that.is rydberg constant and rydberg unit are same. UNIT OF RYDBERG CONSTANT IS m^-1, right? Then what is rydberg unit.
Akshat's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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What really are the units of enthalpy change? [duplicate]

A reasonable definition of standard enthalpy change of formation would be: 'The enthalpy change when one mole of a compound is formed from its constituent elements under standard conditions' ...
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1 vote
1 answer
272 views

Calculate pressure equilibrium constant from concentration equilibrium constant

$$\ce{N2(g) + 3H2 (g) -> 2NH3(g)}$$ Calculate $K_\mathrm p$ from $K_\mathrm c$, given that $K_\mathrm c = \pu{4.2 M^-2}$ and that there is 0.2 moles of $\ce{N2}$, 0.6 moles of $\ce{H2}$ and 0....
J.Se's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
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What are the units that measure free energy?

Is it $\pu{kJ/mol}$? I have done problems and I always end up with these units, but is this correct?
user55614's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
152 views

How isotopes atomic mass was defined?

So we say that 1 Amu (u) = 1/12 of the mass of a Carbon 12 atom. Im not sure about this, but I believe that first we measured the mass of 1 carbon 12 atom (This includes the mass defects that occur ...
Goncalo Fonseca's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
62 views

Convert the lowest IR wavelength to energy in J, frequency in Hz, and wavenumbers in cm-1

Look up the range of wavelengths in nm in the IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Convert the lowest IR wavelength to energy in J, frequency in Hz, and wavenumbers in cm-1. I think I’m going ...
user57797's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
291 views

In biochemistry, when do rate constant units matter in calculating free energy changes?

In my experience, it is always been the ratio of products to reactants that mattered, so as long as your units are consistent; what they are doesn't matter. However, an in-class problem today required ...
R. Mabile's user avatar