With these instructions, how do I solve the problem?

Calculate the fraction of space occupied by the atom of a gas based on the density of the gas and the radius of the atom.

What chapter would this even be in? lol. Its such a bizarre question. Is the idea to test my knowledge of Density or volume? No idea. Does this have to do with the gas laws? Ugh. To be honest, this course is really easy, I just dont understand where I would go about solving this.
I dont understand what fraction of space means. The answer would for sure be in m^3 right(or cm^3)?


I tried searching online for solutions, or practice problems but I could not find exactly what I was looking for.


Here is my attempt:

Given Radius, we can find the volume. With volume and density, we can find the total mass. With the mass, we can find the total number of atoms.

Then what? We have Radius, Volume, Density, Mass, and Total number of atoms?

but what is the question? It wants a "FRACTION OF SPACE".


Thanks guys.

density is kg/volume
I'm thinking,
find the volume of 1 atom by density relations
then find volume by using a (4/3)pi*r^3

They should be different

sounds like it is actually asking you to find one of the van der waals constants. the constant for the correction of volume for real gasses as opposed to ideal gasses.

(P + ((n^2 *a)/v^2)) ( V-nb)= nRT


the "b" is a constant used to exclude the volume of particles. I would think you can rearrange the van der waals equation to get an equation for "b". this would essential give the amount of space the atom itself is occupying within the parameters.

the constant is based around the radius of the atoms so that we know how much we should account for within the volume.

b'=4pi*d^3/3= 8 * (4pi*r^3/3)




not sure if this is what you are wanting, not sure what chem class this is for. I know these theories are usually discussed in physical chemistry classes.

This post was edited by armour on Dec 9 2013 02:52pm