Algonquin College Health Program Assessment (AC-HPAT) Practice Exam

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What does the International Committee for Weights and Measures define as one mole?

  1. 12g of Oxygen-16

  2. 12g of Carbon-12

  3. 6.022 x 10^23 atoms

  4. 1g of Hydrogen

The correct answer is: 12g of Carbon-12

The definition of one mole, as established by the International Committee for Weights and Measures, is based on the amount of substance that contains as many elementary entities, which can be atoms, molecules, ions, etc., as there are in 12 grams of carbon-12. This means that one mole of any substance will contain the same number of entities, referred to as Avogadro's number, which is approximately 6.022 x 10^23. Selecting carbon-12 as the basis for defining a mole is significant because carbon-12 is a stable isotope and provides a precise, consistent reference point for measuring amounts of substances in chemistry. This value is widely used in scientific calculations and helps to bridge the relationship between atomic mass units and grams for real-world chemical applications. The other options either reference different elements or values that do not align with the internationally recognized definition of a mole: oxygen-16 does not serve as the standard, while 6.022 x 10^23 refers to the number of atoms or molecules in one mole rather than its mass. Meanwhile, 1 gram of hydrogen is not relevant to the definition of a mole in the context of using carbon-12 as the standard. Therefore, defining one mole as 12