Equivalent Weight (Noun)
Meaning
The atomic weight of an element that has the same combining capacity as a given weight of another element; the standard is 8 for oxygen.
Classification
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects.
Examples
- The equivalent weight of hydrogen is one, meaning that one gram of hydrogen will combine with eight grams of oxygen to form water.
- In order to determine the equivalent weight of an unknown substance, a chemist would need to perform a series of experiments to measure its combining capacity.
- The equivalent weight of a substance is an important concept in chemistry, as it allows scientists to predict how much of one substance will react with a given amount of another substance.
- For example, the equivalent weight of calcium is 20, meaning that 20 grams of calcium will combine with 8 grams of oxygen to form calcium oxide.
- The concept of equivalent weight is useful for balancing chemical equations and predicting the amount of reactants needed to produce a desired product.