Le site de vulgarisation scientifique de l’Université de Liège. ULg, Université de Liège
Molecular Weight

The ratio between the mass of a molecule and the atomic mass unit. The mass unit is equivalent to 1/12th of the mass of one atom of carbon 12 (in other words, the weight of hydrogen is equal to 1 and that of carbon to 12) . To calculate the weight of a molecule, one simply adds the atomic mass of each atom of the molecule multiplied by its index in the basic formula. For example, the molecular weight of C6H1206 is : 6X12 + 12X1 + 6X16 = 180.

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