[Antagonist]

Alright, I'm completely new at this so please bear with me, and I'm sure this is as novice a question as it gets. Most of all, I'm having difficulty fathoming the difference between a 1 M solution and a 1 N solution.

Would 10 ml of 1 N Na nitrite be the same thing as 10 ml of 1 M Na nitrite?

I know 1 M Sodium nitrate would be 850 mg of sodium nitrate in 10 ml water. But I can't work out the numbers for making a 10 ml solution of 1 N Na nitrite.

[agrobert]

They are the same in your case but not always

http://www.google.com/custom?domains=www.chemicalforums.com&q=normality&sa=Search&sitesearch=www.chemicalforums.com&client=pub-4958982952381359&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%230066CC%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23999999%3BVLC%3A336633%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BALC%3A0066CC%3BLC%3A0066CC%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A666666%3BGIMP%3A666666%3BLH%3A50%3BLW%3A87%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.chemicalforums.com%2FThemes%2Fdefault%2Fimages%2Fsphinx_logo.jpg%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.chemicalforums.com%3BFORID%3A1&hl=en

In chemistry, normality is a measure of concentration: it is equal to the number of gram equivalents of a solute per liter of solution. WIKI

[Antagonist]

Yes, thank you, just the start I needed to begin my quest at understanding this concept. Thank you for your reply.

[Antagonist]

So, because Sodium Nitrate has a Molar mass of 84.9947 g/mol, and Sodium Nitrite has a Molar mass of 69.00 g/mol, and I know that 850 mg Na nitrate + 10 ml H20 = a 1.00 M solution, then that means a 1 N solution of Na Nitrite would be 690 mg + 10 ml H20. I wonder if that's how I was supposed to figure that problem out...

[agrobert]

So, because Sodium Nitrate has a Molar mass of 84.9947 g/mol, and Sodium Nitrite has a Molar mass of 69.00 g/mol, and I know that 850 mg Na nitrate + 10 ml H20 = a 1.00 M solution, then that means a 1 N solution of Na Nitrite would be 690 mg + 10 ml H20. I wonder if that's how I was supposed to figure that problem out...

Make sure you understand that there is no correlation between nitrate and nitrite in determining concentration.

[Skiznibbler]

If M stands for moles what does the N stand for?

[Arkcon]

M is molarity, moles per liter,
N is normality, essentially the molarity of the reactive species you're interested in,
m is molality,  moles per kg of solvent.