Concentrations
Moderators: Chem_Mod, Chem_Admin
-
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:35 am
Concentrations
Dr. Lavelle mentioned during today’s lecture that concentrations must be positive values. Out of curiosity, why do they have to be positive? Is it not possible for the concentration to dissipate or weaken?
-
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:25 am
Re: Concentrations
Hello,
Concentrations must be positive because they represents quantities of substances, and you can not have a negative amount of something. If they represented the rates at which the concentrations are changing, then it could be negative, but that it not the case.
I hope this helps!
Concentrations must be positive because they represents quantities of substances, and you can not have a negative amount of something. If they represented the rates at which the concentrations are changing, then it could be negative, but that it not the case.
I hope this helps!
-
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:58 am
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Re: Concentrations
Concentrations measure the quantity of something, which cannot be negative. Also, if we think of concentration as mol/volume, neither mol nor volume can be negative either. So concentration would not be negative.
-
- Posts: 120
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:18 am
Re: Concentrations
Can't have a negative amount of a substance! I like what Simone said about mol and volume, makes it super clear to understand. :)
Re: Concentrations
You can have lower concentrations but you cannot have a negative amount of the substance, the lowest possible value would be zero meaning that it is not present in the solution.
-
- Posts: 99
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:23 am
-
- Posts: 102
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:18 am
Re: Concentrations
a negative concentration would mean there is less than 0 moles which is not possible. The sign is not an indication of change in concentration but the actual quantity itself.
-
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:46 am
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Re: Concentrations
Concentration represents moles/volume. For concentration to be negative there would have to be negative moles or negative volume which is impossible.
Re: Concentrations
Concentration is an amount of a substance. Think about the formula M=n mols/L liters. We learned that mols measures the amount of any substance with Avogrados number 6.022 x 10^32. This could be measuring mols of Magnesium Chloride or mols of m&ms. Either way, you cannot have negative amounts of Magnesium Chloride or m&ms, so concentration is always positive.
-
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:15 am
-
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:25 am
Re: Concentrations
Concentrations must be positive because a negative concentrations means there is negative moles which is not possible.
Return to “General Science Questions”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests