Skip to main content

Formula Mass for Covalent Compounds

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

A covalent compound's formula mass is the sum of the average atomic masses of every atom shown in its molecular formula.

Show

Chloroform, CHCl3, sums one carbon, one hydrogen, and three chlorine average masses to a formula mass near 119.37 amu.

Watch for

Counting chlorine only once in CHCl3, instead of three times as its subscript requires, undercounts the formula mass by two chlorine masses.