CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Hello! I would like some clarification on when to use these three units. How would we calculate finding an atom or molecule differently than calculating formula units? Or is it the same process but with different units?

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure the phrase formula units is just generic, and varies based on what the question is asking i.e; for someone looking to answer a question about volume the formula units would be milliliters/liters etc. while a question about number of atoms could possibly be moles. I'm not 100% sure though and I think their are similar questions to this where people have given a better answer :) hope this helped a little though!

I'm not sure if this is correct, but my understanding is this:

atom: 1 unit of one element. for example, H is 1 hydrogen atom.
molecule: a molecule is a 2 or more atoms bonded together.
formula unit: the empirical formula of a compound.

Yes there is nothing different in calculating an atom, molecule, or formula unit. It just has different meanings and units that need to be marked in your final answer.