22 October 13

Tomorrow (10-23) is celebrated as "Mole Day" by chemists and their comrades around the world. It honors the "exponential" part of Avogadro's Number, that awesome piece of scientific math-ology that counts the number of atoms (or molecules) in ONE MOLE of an element (or compound). A mole is the amount of "something" that has as many unit particles as there are in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. The mole concept is essential for understanding how chemists make the measurements needed to write chemical formulas and reaction equations. In my photo you can see 27 grams of aluminum foil, which is 6 X 10²³ atoms of aluminum. (I had to honor Mole Day early this year because I have another special event tomorrow.)