Ion transport number

Imagine a big playground with many children playing. Now, imagine that some of these children have backpacks that are full of toys and some have backpacks that aren't full. The children with the full backpacks are like the ions we will be learning about.

Similarly, ions are like these children because they have a charge. Just like a child with a full backpack, some ions are positively charged and some are negatively charged.

Now, let's imagine that there is a fence in the middle of the playground, and only the children with empty backpacks are allowed to cross it. This fence is like a barrier or a membrane.

In science, we use membranes to help us understand how ions move. When we have a membrane, we can put a solution with ions on one side and another solution on the other side.

Through this membrane, the only thing that will pass is the ions with the empty backpacks. These are the ions that have enough energy to move through the membrane. The energy that they have to move is called transport number.

The transport number is a number that tells us the amount of ions that can pass through the membrane. This number is found by counting the number of ions that pass through the membrane compared to the total number of ions in the solution.

So, the transport number helps scientists understand how ions move through membranes and how fast they can do it. Just like counting the number of children with empty backpacks crossing the fence, we can use transport numbers to help us understand the movement of ions in different solutions.