Week 1 textbook Problem Fundamentals E.1

[905934067]

I am going back through all the textbook problems that I did not have time to do as a way of studying and preparing for the final. All the way back from Week 1, this question asks the following: The field of nanotechnology offers some intriguing possibilities, such as the creation of fibers one atom wide. Suppose you were able to string together 1.00 mol Ag atoms, each of radius 144 pm, into one of these fibers by encapsulating them in carbon nanotubes. How long would the fiber extend? I am confused by this question either because it was so long ago or because I just don't know how to go about solving it for the relation of moles to length is confusing me. How did some of you go about solving this? What are some things I should keep in mind to start this question.

[Sydni Bednarek 3I]

Hi! To solve this problem, I started by finding how many Ag atoms are in 1.00 mol. We know that there are 6.022 x 10^23 atoms in 1 mol, as this is Avogadro's number. After finding that there are 6.022 x 10^23 Ag atoms in 1.00 mol, I multiplied this value by 288 pm. This is because I knew that each atom had a radius of 144 pm, meaning each one has a diameter of 288 pm, and to find how long a fiber made up of these atoms would extend, you would need to find the sum of all of their diameters. I hope that helped!