Dimensional Analysis (also called Factor-Label Method or the Unit Factor Method) is a problemsolving method that uses the

fact that any number or expression can be multiplied by one without changing its value. It is a useful technique. The only danger is that you may end up thinking that chemistry is simply a math problem - which it definitely is not. Unit factors may be made from any two terms that describe the same or equivalent "amounts" of what we are interested in. For example, we know that 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters Note: Unlike most English-Metric conversions, this one is exact. There are exactly 2.540000000... centimeters in 1 inch. We can make two unit factors from this information:

Now, we can solve some problems. Set up each problem by writing down what you need to find with a question mark. Then set it equal to the information that you are given. The problem is solved by multiplying the given data and its units by the appropriate unit factors so that only the desired units are present at the end. (1) How many centimeters are in 6.00 inches?

(2) Express 24.0 cm in inches.

You can also string many unit factors together. (3) How many seconds are in 2.0 years?

Scientists generally work in metric units. Common prefixes used are the following: Prefix megakiloAbbreviation M k Meaning 106 103 Example 1 megameter (Mm) = 1 x 106 m 1 kilogram (kg) = 1 x 103 g

centimillimicronano-

c m n

10-2 10-3 10-6 10-9

1 centimeter (cm) = 1 x 10-2 m 1 milligram (mg) = 1 x 10-3 g 1 micrometer ( g) = 1 x 10-6 g 1 nanogram (ng) = 1 x 10-9 g

(4) Convert 50.0 mL to liters. (This is a very common conversion.)

(5) What is the density of mercury (13.6 g/cm3) in units of kg/m3?

We also can use dimensional analysis for solving problems. (6) How many atoms of hydrogen can be found in 45 g of ammonia, NH3? We will need three unit factors to do this calculation, derived from the following information:
1. 1 mole of NH3 has a mass of 17 grams. 2. 1 mole of NH3 contains 6.02 x 1023 molecules of NH3. 3. 1 molecule of NH3 has 3 atoms of hydrogen in it.

There are many, many more examples in your textbook!

QUIZ:
Question How many millimeters are present in 20.0 inches?

1 Question 2 Question 3

The volume of a wooden block is 6.30 in3. This is equivalent to how many cubic centimeters? A sample of calcium nitrate, Ca(NO3)2, with a formula weight of 164 g/mol, has 5.00 x 1027 atoms of oxygen. How many kilograms of Ca(NO3)2 are present?

When Units Go Square

Copyright (c) 1998 by Kenny Felder
This is a follow-up to my paper One of These Things Is Not Like the Other, which introduces the concept of units. Mrs. Loren Houger wrote and asked me to explain about square units, which are a little trickier, but not too tough once you have grasped the original concepts.

What is a Square Foot?

To answer that question, let's start by looking at a square.

As you can see, each side is 1 yard long. So the total area of the square is 1x1 which is 1. 1 what? It isn't one yardthat is the length of the side, but not the area of the square. The area of the square is "1 square yard." A square yard is a measurement of area and it can also be written as 1 yd2 for reasons that should be obvious by the time I'm finished (but aren't now). A length can be measured in yards, never in square yards. An area can be measured in square yards, never in yards. So you cannot "convert" yards to square yards, because they measure fundamentally different things. Learning about square yards is really learning about area. Let's look at another picture.

What is the area of this rectangle? 2 times 1/2: again it is 1, "1 square yard." So you now have a square and a rectangle which have no lengths in common, but the same area. That's a very strong statement. It means that if you covered these surfaces with marbles, it would take the same number of marbles to cover each surface. Many different shapes can all have the same "area" and it says something real about them. OK, so each of these shapes is "1 square yard." How many square feet are they? There are three feet in a yard, so you might be tempted to say 3 square feet in a square yard, but you'd be wrong. The answer is 32, or 9. Let me demonstrate with another picture.

What I've done is divide our original square into three equal vertical strips, and three equal horizontal strips. Now, looking at this 3-by-3 thing I have just drawn, you can see two things. First, you can see that if the original (whole square) was one yard on each side, then each smaller square is one foot on each side, because there are three feet in a yard. Second, you can see that there are a total of 9 of these "square feet" inside the whole "square yard." This is the key moment I've been building up to this whole time, so please make sure that you can convince yourself of this: 9 square feet equals 1 square yard. Now let's check your understanding. How many square inches are in a square foot? How many square centimeters in a square meter? Answer these questions for yourself, then click here to see my answers.

Dimensional Analysis with Square Units

My Units paper (which I know you read before this one, right?) discusses "dimensional analysis," in which you multiply units as if they were numbers. The same trick can be used with square units and it may even be more useful, since things can get pretty complicated to keep track of on your own! For instance, 1 yard * 1 yard = 1 yard2 This is the first calculation we did, to find the area of a 1x1 square. Now, you can see that just as the numbers multiply (1*1=1), so do the units (yard*yard=yard2). When we did the same calculation in feet, we found that 3 ft * 3 ft = 9 ft2 Again, the numbers multiply (3*3=9) and so do the units (ft*ft=ft2).

But how about converting? In my paper I talk about multiplying things by "1 yard/3 ft" to do a conversion. Supposing you do that twice? Then you're multiplying by (1 yard/3 ft) (1 yard/3 ft) = (1 yard2) / (9 ft2) ...which makes sense, since we already said, there are 9 ft2 in 1 yard2. So if someone asked you to convert 5 square yards to square feet, you would know that the answer is: 5 yards2 * (9 ft2 / 1 yard2) = 45 ft2 ...and so on.

Area of a Rectangle

Unit 1 > Lesson 2 of 8

The area of a polygon is the number of square units inside the polygon. To understand the difference between perimeter and area, think of perimeter as the length of fence needed to enclose the yard, whereas area is the space inside the yard. Perimeter is 1-dimensional and is measured in linear units such as inches, feet or meters. Area is 2-dimensional: it has a length and a width. Area is measured in square units such as square inches, square feet or square meters. To find the area of a rectangle, multiply the length by the width. The formula is: , where is the area, is the length, is the width, and means multiply. A square is a rectangle with 4 equal sides. To find the area of a square, multiply the length of one side by itself. The formula is: or , where A is the area, s is the length of a side, and means multiply. Let's look at some examples of finding the area of rectangles. Example 1: Find the area of a square with each side measuring 2 inches. Solution: = (2 in) (2 in) = 4 in2 Example 2: A rectangle has a length of 8 centimeters and a width of 3 centimeters. Find the area. Solution:

= (8 cm) (3 cm) = 24 cm2 In Examples 1 and 2, we found the area given the dimensions of the rectangle. Let's look at some examples in which we are given the area of the rectangle, and are asked to work backwards to find the missing dimension. Example 3: The area of a square is 9 square centimeters. How long is one side? Solution: 9 cm2 = Since 3 3 = 9, we get 3 cm 3 cm = 9 cm2. So must equal 3 cm. = 3 cm Example 4: The area of a rectangle is 12 square inches and the width is 3 inches. What is the length? Solution: 12 in2 = 3 in Since 4 3 = 12, we get (4 in) (3 in) = 12 in2. So must equal 4 in. = 4 in Summary: The dimensions of a rectangle are length and width. Given the length and width of a rectangle, we can find the area. Given the area and one dimension of a rectangle, we can find the other dimension. The formula for area of a rectangle is: where is the length and is the width. A square is a rectangle with 4 equal sides The formula for area of a square is: or where is the length of one side.

Area of a Triangle Part I

Unit 1 > Lesson 4 of 8

The area of a polygon is the number of square units inside that polygon. Area is 2-dimensional like a carpet or an area rug. A triangle is a threesided polygon. We will look at several types of triangles in this lesson. To find the area of a triangle, multiply the base by the height, and then divide by 2. The division by 2 comes from the fact that a parallelogram

can be divided into 2 triangles. For example, in the diagram to the left, the area of each triangle is equal to one-half the area of the parallelogram. Since the area of a parallelogram is , the area of a triangle must be one-half the area of a parallelogram. Thus, the formula for the area of a triangle is: or where is the base, is the height and means multiply. The base and height of a triangle must be perpendicular to each other. In each of the examples below, the base is a side of the triangle. However, depending on the triangle, the height may or may not be a side of the triangle. For example, in the right triangle in Example 2, the height is a side of the triangle since it is perpendicular to the base. In the triangles in Examples 1 and 3, the lateral sides are not perpendicular to the base, so a dotted line is drawn to represent the height. Example 1: Find the area of an acute triangle with a base of 15 inches and a height of 4 inches.

Solution: = (15 in) (4 in) = (60 in2) = 30 in2 Example 2: Find the area of a right triangle with a base of 6 centimeters and a height of 9

centimeters. Solution: = (6 cm) (9 cm) = (54 cm2) 2 = 27 cm Example 3: Find the area of an obtuse triangle with a base of 5 inches and a height of 8 inches.

Solution: = (5 in) (8 in) = (40 in2) = 20 in2 Example 4: The area of a triangular-shaped mat is 18 square feet and the base is 3 feet. Find the height. (Note: The triangle in the illustration to the right is NOT drawn to scale.)

Solution: In this example, we are given the area of a triangle and one dimension, and we are asked to work backwards to find the other dimension. 18 ft2 =

(3 ft) Multiplying both sides of the equation by 2, we get: 36 ft2 = (3 ft) Dividing both sides of the equation by 3 ft, we get: 12 ft = Commuting this equation, we get: = 12 ft

Summary: Given the base and the height of a triangle, we can find the area. Given the area and either the base or the height of a triangle, we can find the other dimension. The formula for area of a triangle is: or where is the base, is the height

Area of a Trapezoid

Unit 1 > Lesson 5 of 8

The area of a polygon is the number of square units inside that polygon. Area is 2-dimensional like a carpet or an area rug. A trapezoid is a 4-sided figure with one pair of parallel sides. For example, in the diagram to the right, the bases are parallel. To find the area of a trapezoid, take the sum of its bases, multiply the sum by the height of the trapezoid, and then divide the result by 2, The formula for the area of a trapezoid is: or where is , is , is the height. and means multiply.

Each base of a trapezoid must be perpendicular to the height. In the diagram above, both bases are sides of the trapezoid. However, since the lateral sides are not perpendicular to either of the bases, a dotted line is drawn to represent the height. In Examples 1 and 3 below, the height is a side of the trapezoid since it is perpendicular to the base. In Example 2, the lateral sides are not perpendicular to the base, so a dotted line is drawn to represent the height. Example 1: Find the area of a trapezoid with bases of 10 inches and 14 inches, and a height of 5 inches. Solution: = = (10 in + 14 in) 5 in (24 in) (5 in)

= 120 in2 A = 60 in2

Example 2: Find the area of a trapezoid with bases of 9 centimeters and 7 centimeters, and a height of 3 centimeters. Solution: = = (9 cm + 7 cm) 3 cm (16 cm) (3 cm)

= 48 cm2 = 24 cm2 Example 3: The area of a trapezoid is 52 square inches and the bases are 11 inches and 15 inches. Find the height. Solution: 52 in2 = (11 in + 15 in)

52 in2 = (26 in) 2 52 in = (13 in) 52 in2 (13 in) = = 4 in Summary: To find the area of a trapezoid, take the sum of its bases, multiply the sum by the height of the trapezoid, and then divide the result by 2, The formula for the area of a trapezoid is: or where is , is , and is the height.

Volume enclosed by a cube Definition: The number of cubic units that will exactly fill a cube Try this Drag the orange dot to resize the cube. The volume is calculated as you drag.

How to find the volume of a cube

Recall that a cube has all edges the same length (See Cube definition). The volume of a cube is found by multiplying the length of any edge by itself twice. So if the length of an edge is 4, the volume is 4 x 4 x 4 = 64

Or as a formula:

volume = s

where: s is the length of any edge of the cube.

Calculato r

In the figure above, drag the orange dot to resize the cube. From the edge length shown, calculate the volume of the cube and verify that it agrees with the calculation in the figure. When we write volume = s3, strictly speaking this should be read as "s to the power 3", but because it is used to calculate the volume of cubes it is usually spoken as "s cubed".

Some notes on the volume of a cube

Recall that a cube is like an empty box. It has nothing inside, and the walls of the box have zero thickness. So strictly speaking, the cube has zero volume. When we talk about the volume of a cube, we really are talking about how much liquid it can hold, or how many unit cubes would fit inside it. Think of it this way: if you took a real, empty metal box and melted it down, you would end up with a small blob of metal. If the box was made of metal with zero thickness, you would get no metal at all. That is what we mean when we say a cube has no volume. The strictly correct way of saying it is "the volume enclosed by a cube" - the amount space there is inside it. But many textbooks simply say "the volume of a cube" to mean the same thing. However, this is not strictly correct in the mathematical sense. What they usually mean when they say this is the volume enclosed by the cube.

Units
Remember that the length of an edge and the volume will be in similar units. So if the edge length is in miles, then the volume will be in cubic miles, and so on. To find the volume of a rectangular prism/ cube/ block use V= lwh l= length, w= width, h= height To find density, use D= M/V M= mass, V=volume

Volume of a Cylinder
A cylinder with radius r units and height h units has a volume of V cubic units given by

Example 27

Find the volume of a cylindrical canister with radius 7 cm and height 12 cm.
Solution:

Volume of a sphere

Circumscribed cylinder to a sphere.

In 3 dimensions, the volume inside a sphere (that is, the volume of a ball) is given by the formula

where r is the radius of the sphere and is the constant pi. This formula was first derived by Archimedes, who showed that the volume of a sphere is 2/3 that of a circumscribed cylinder. (This assertion follows from Cavalieri's principle.) In modern mathematics, this formula can be derived using integral calculus, i.e. disk integration to sum the volumes of an infinite number of circular disks of infinitesimally small thickness stacked centered side by side along the x axis from x = 0 where the disk has radius r (i.e. y = r) to x = r where the disk has radius 0 (i.e. y = 0). At any given x, the incremental volume (V) is given by the product of the cross-sectional area of the disk at x and its thickness (x):

The total volume is the summation of all incremental volumes:

In the limit as x approaches zero[2] this becomes:

At any given x, a right-angled triangle connects x, y and r to the origin, hence it follows from the Pythagorean theorem that:

Thus, substituting y with a function of x gives:

This can now be evaluated:

Therefore the volume of a sphere is:

Alternatively this formula is found using spherical coordinates, with volume element

In higher dimensions, the sphere (or hypersphere) is usually called an n-ball. General recursive formulas exist for deriving the volume of an n-ball. For most practical purposes, the volume of a sphere inscribed in a cube can be approximated as 52.4% of the volume of the cube, since . For example, since a cube with edge 3 length 1 m has a volume of 1 m , a sphere with diameter 1 m has a volume of about 0.524 m3.