Concept preview

What you will be able to do

1. 01Define and calculate molar concentration (molarity)
2. 02Find the concentration of each ion from a dissolved ionic compound
3. 03Use the dilution relationship $C_1V_1 = C_2V_2$

Concentration tells how much solute is packed into a solution — a concentrated solution has a lot of solute per unit volume, a dilute one has little. To be quantitative, chemists need a precise measure rather than the loose words 'strong' and 'weak'. The standard measure relates the amount of solute to the volume of solution, so that any two solutions can be compared exactly.