Answer to Question #139269 in General Chemistry for Arsianna Co

Question

1. Can you count the number of cereal flakes inside a bowl? What are the methods you can use to count each cereal flake?
2. Do scientists count atoms using the same procedure? Should there be a system to count atoms? Why?

Answer 1

1. Well, a single serving is 30g, and that might be less cereal than you think. Try using a full cup or mug to measure the cereal while it's dry, or estimate an adult fist size if you don't have a cup handy. Think the size of a tennis ball.

2. To count them efficiently and quickly, yo

use the count-by-weighting method, which means you need to know how much individual atoms and molecules weight. Here's where you find the weights.

Atoms: Get the weights of the individual atoms on the periodic table — just find the atomic mass number