Sunday, October 21, 2007

The History of the Mole



The History of the Mole (Mol):


A Mole (mol): The amount of a substance that contains as many particles as there are atoms in a 12 g of a carbon-12 atom

The mol is a unit that we use for counting.

The number of particles has been dertemined to be 6.23 x 10^23, also known as Avogadro's number.


Avogadro's number comes from an Italian scientist named Amedeo Avogadro. His theories caused scientists to realize that there was exactly 6.022 1367 x 10^23 (or 6.022 x 10^23).

The Beginning of Mole Day:


In the early 1980's a chemistry teacher was very enthusiastic about starting a day in celebration of Avogadro's number a.k.a. the mol. There was an article published in The Science Teacher publication about the teacher and her quest to make it a national holiday. On May 15, 1991, The National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) was founded. This foundation is on a mission and was founded solely to get students excited about chemistry.
Now Mole Day is currently celebrated throughout chemistry classrooms throughout the nation.

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