Happy Mole Day.
My head is about to explode. Chemistry is not my strong suit. However, October 23 is Mole Day, the day when we celebrate Avogadro’s number (6.02214076 × 1023), so I’m putting on my lab coat and safety glasses and exploring the world of atoms and molecules.
This gigantic number is named after Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) because he came up with the following gas law. “all gases, at the same temperature and pressure, have the same number of molecules per volume.” This law allows chemists to figure out the mass of different atoms. For example, a mole of Carbon-12 has a mass of 12 grams, and a mole of Oxygen 16- has a mass of 16 grams. If you had an unknown substance, you could weigh a mole of it and use its mass to figure out what it was. Simple.
No, my head still wants to explode. But that is the point of holidays like today. We may never use a mole in our daily life, but it is good to expand our knowledge of the universe, even if it makes our brain hurt.
I think part of the reason that I can’t wrap my mind around Avogadro’s number is that it’s so big, but it’s contained in such a small space. Twelve grams is like twelve paper clips. Hold twelve paperclips in your hand. If they were made out of Carbon-12, you would be holding 6.02214076 × 1023 atoms. Wow.
This probably has nothing to do with a mole, but all this talk about huge numbers contained in a small object reminds me of the Total Perspective Vortex from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It’s a funny quote and doesn’t make my head hurt. Happy Mole Day!
“The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses. To explain — since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation — every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake. The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.”
Douglas Adams