Question

Can anyone explain, in layman terms, what this chemistry equations mean to me please?

Rf = Ds/Df
Ds = Distance traveled by the compound
Df = Distance traveled by the solvent

I know it tells me what each symbol means but I still don't understand it.

Answer 1

Rf is proportion of the distance the compound travelled in terms of the solvent

so if i threw a bucket of water on the floor and you attempted to surf on a boogie board momentarily, Ds would be the distance you travelled on the water and the Df would be total distance the water travelled

Answer 2

@aaronq Okay, what about in the terms of ink on paper? The project I'm doing is where you put a dot of an ink on a piece of paper, stick it right above water and when the paper absorbs the water, the ink rises with it. Does that make sense?

Answer 3

the ink would be you on the surf board, and the water would be the water lol

paper chromatography right?

Answer 4

yep, fun fun lol

Answer 5

@aaronq so Df is the distance traveled by the water and Ds is the distance traveled by the ink?

Answer 6

and Rf is the difference between those two?

Answer 7

yes Df is the distance travelled by the water and Ds is the distance travelled by the ink.
Rf is the proportion of the distance travelled, basically if the water travelled 1 m, and the ink travelled 0.5 m then Rf would be 1/2

Answer 8

Could you explain Rf one more time? I'm not sure if I fully understand it.

Answer 9

Rf is the relative distance the ink travels in terms of the solvent. basically it's a reference frame since the solvent only travelled so far.

basically it's a fraction of how far the ink travelled, almost like an average. compare 2 inks with different Rf values

ink 1: Rf = 0.5
ink 2: Rf = 0.2

if the solvent travelled 10 meters, ink 1 would travel 5 meters, and ink 2 would travel 2 meters

Answer 10

I'm really trying to understand this but it's still not making sense. Sry.

Answer 11

It just when i see something like Ds/Df, I think I need to divide or even subtract...?

Answer 12

it is a division, you divide the distance travelled by the ink by the distance travelled by the solvent.

it's basically a measure of how fast the ink moves through the solvent in comparison to other compounds

Answer 13

Oh okay, well see I thought that earlier but your last example confused me. I think I get it now. Thanks :)

Answer 14

haha sorry about the confusion! good luck

Answer 15

It's okay and thanks :)

Answer 16

no prob (: