National Mole Day – U.S.
(Avogadro’s Number)
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This is NOT a holiday to honor the digging mammal called a mole!
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Instead, it is a day commemorating Avogadro’s Number, which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry.
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Actually, just PART of the day is Mole Day. From 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., on 10-23, we celebrate this chemistry commemoration. That’s because Avogadro’s Number is 6.02 x 10^23.
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For any molecule, one mole is a mass in grams whose number is equal to the atomic mass of the molecule. For example, a water molecule (H2O) has an atomic mass of 18. So one mole of water weighs 18 grams.
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In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro’s Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. Another way of saying that is that 18 grams of water has 6.02 x 10^23 molecules of water.
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Learn about Mole Day, Avogadro’s Number / moles, and chemistry!
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- Here is the official Mole Day site, and here is a “Happy Mole Day” song! (I think the song is pretty darned funny—check it out!)
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- Mole is just a word that stands for a number. (Granted, it’s a pretty ginormous number!) It’s a one-syllable word for a number that is used a lot by chemists, and the word is there so that chemists can easily refer to the number.
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In other words, instead of saying “six point zero two times ten to the twenty-third power,” chemists just say “mole.” If you want to see a more complete explanation, go here.
- Here is another good explanation of Avogadro’s Number, which is sometimes called “the chemist’s dozen.”
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- Check out Meg A. Mole’s interviews with chemists here.
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One of the interviews is with Anshul Samar, who created a chemistry game called Elementeo.
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