## Monday, 6 June 2011

### Conversion factor between atomic mass units and grams

## Conversion factor between atomic mass units and grams

The standard scientific unit for dealing with atoms in macroscopic quantities is the mole (mol), which is defined arbitrarily as the amount of a substance with as many atoms or other units as there are in 12 grams of the carbon isotope C-12. The number of atoms in a mole is calledAvogadro's number, the value of which is approximately 6.022 × 1023 mol−1. One mole of a substance always contains almost exactly therelative atomic mass or molar mass of that substance (which is the concept of molar mass), expressed in grams; however, this is almost never true for the atomic mass. For example, the standard atomic weight of iron is 55.847 g/mol, and therefore one mole of iron as commonly found on earth has a mass of 55.847 grams. The atomic mass of an 56Fe isotope is 55.935 u and one mole of 56Fe will in theory weigh 55.935g, but such amounts of pure 56Fe have never been found on Earth.
The formulaic conversion between atomic mass units and SI mass in grams for a single atom is:
$1\ {\rm{u}}={M_{\rm{u}} \over N_{\rm A}}\ = {{1\ \rm{g/mol}} \over N_{\rm A}}$
where Mu is the Molar mass constant and NA is the Avogadro constant.