Question

What is the atomic mass of calcium chloride?

Answer 1

`110.98g/(mol)`

Explanation:

Let's start with the chemical formula of calcium chloride:

`CaCl_2`

To find the molar mass of a compound you would use the periodic table to find the molar mass of each element separately.

In our case, our two elements are calcium and chlorine. Next, you have to find the molar mass of Ca (40.08 g/mol) and Cl (35.45 g/mol).

From the chemical formula that I provided, we can see that there are 2 atoms of chlorine and the molar mass of 35.45g/mol only accounts for one Cl atom. To account for both chlorine atoms, the molar mass has to be multiplied by 2:

`2xx35.45g/(mol)` = 70.90 g/mol

Now that we have the masses for calcium and both chlorine atoms, you simply add the two masses together to obtain the molar mass of the entire compound, which is 110.98 g/mol.