Skip to content
Answer the following questions · Q18

Q.Point out the difference between 12 g of carbon and 12 u of carbon

Maharashtra MsbshseTextbookSubjectiveImportance★★★★★est
4% · 2/54 Questions
✓ Free question

Step 1. 12 g of carbon is a real, weighable, macroscopic mass; since carbon's molar mass is 12 g mol-1, 12 g of carbon corresponds to exactly 1 mole of carbon atoms, i.e. 6.022 x 10^23 individual carbon atoms.

Step 2. 12 u, by contrast, is a mass expressed in atomic mass units — and by definition, one carbon-12 atom itself has a mass of exactly 12.00000 u. So '12 u of carbon' is simply the mass of a SINGLE carbon-12 atom.

Step 3. The two quantities therefore differ enormously in scale: 12 g represents a mole's worth of atoms (a huge, countable, weighable number of them), while 12 u represents the mass of just one individual atom.

✓Final answer

12 g of carbon = mass of 1 mole (6.022x10^23) of carbon atoms; 12 u = the mass of a single carbon-12 atom on the relative atomic-mass scale.

Unlock everything free for 14 days

  • Full step-by-step solutions
  • Concept-first explanations
  • Methods, shortcuts & mistakes
  • PYQ mapping + timed mock tests

Full access for 14 days. No credit card required.