Moles vs Concentrations in ICE Box

[Connie Liang 3L]

When doing the ICE box, is it your habit to put in moles or concentrations in? Is there a certain reason why you would choose one over the other?

[Samantha Pedersen 2K]

My habit is putting the concentrations of each species into the ICE box. I like to use concentrations rather than moles so that I don't have to remember to do an extra step at the end of converting moles into concentrations.

[Madison Wong 3H]

I use moles, because it makes it easier when writing it in the Ka equation to use molarity rather than moles as there is an extra step of considering volume that is missing.

[SahajDole_1C]

I use the molar concentration as it makes it easier in the end

[Olivia Monroy 1A]

I use molarity/molar concentration to keep the ice box as simple as possible and ICE does stand for initial concentration*, change in concentration*, and equilibrium concentration*

[Maaria Abdel-Moneim 2G]

Using molar concentrations makes things more consistent especially if you are using or solving for the K value which uses molar concentrations in its equation.

[Minh-Thy Vo 3D]

I usually use molar concentration just so I don't forget to do the conversion at the end.

[Laura 3l]

I think it's just easier to put in Moles in the beginning when doing an ICE Box, just so you don't forget to convert the concentrations in the end.

[Faaizah Arshad 1H]

When I use the ice table, I normally start with concentrations because I can directly calculate the equilibrium concentrations and plug them into the K expression to solve a problem. However, if you use moles, then you have to make sure to convert to concentrations later on, which you could possibly forget to do. Therefore, I think it's safer and more helpful to use concentrations.

[Cecilia Cisneros 1F]

I tend to just use concentrations because it makes it much easier to be able to solve for equilibrium constants. I would say that is the safer bet (to use concentrations over moles) because there is a chance that you may forget to convert moles to concentration when finding equilibrium constants.

[John_Tran_3J]

I use molar concentration, it is the most simple in the end.

[Giselle_zamora_1L]

I convert it to moles in the beginning but i think that would only be for Kc because since K is unitless when calculating Kp (pressure) i don't think it matter if you do bar or atm

[magalysantos_1F]

It really depends on the type of problem. If you are given the moles and volume of an reactant or products, I use the concentration since its usually the initial concentration needed for ICE Box calculations. However, if I am already given at least one concentration at equilibrium for a reactant or product, I solve the ICE Box first and then divide every final concentration by the volume.

[Sejal Parsi 3K]

I normally use molar concentration because it keeps everything consistent and saves a step at the end.

[Jasmin Kumar 1G]

I normally do molar concentrations because it easier to have the final answer at the end, rather than having to divide by the liters at the end because I would probably forget.

[Madeline Ogden 3B]

I typically put concentrations in my ICE boxes. This allows me to do the conversion from moles to concentration at the beginning of the problem rather than the end so I don't forget to do it.

[Keeryth Sandhu 1H]

I tend to put concentrations in, especially if solving for the K value.

[Jiwon_Chae_3L]

I prefer using concentrations in the ICE box as I find that most questions end up asking for concentration values anyways.

[Serena Song 1A]

I prefer putting the concentrations into the ice box just so that I don't forget to it later on.

[Karl Yost 1L]

Always use concentrations, as it is less work. When the reaction vessel is not 1L, you will have to do some more work to convert the provided concentrations to the amount of moles. Also, we are measuring changes in concentration, so using concentrations is more applicable.

[Mary Gallo 1G]

I would suggest using concentrations in ICE boxes because we use concentrations when working with K values, pH and pOH, or compositions of solutions.

[RyanKopeikin_2I]

I would strongly recommend putting concentrations in the ICE box, even though I know Sappling often uses moles. Using concentrations reduces the amount of steps you will need to do later, and decreases the likelihood you will make an error like forget to convert moles to molarity.