Mole Day

My friend Joann reminded me that today is Mole Day - a chemist's 'thing' evidently, having to do with something about magic numbers and 'avocados' and today's date.* This is good to know, since I missed the "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" holiday-of-sorts in September.

All I ever knew about Mole Day was that the chemistry teacher baked pies that day. The mysteries of science run deep. Wouldn't guacamole have been more appropriate?

Since the number involved is 6.02 x 1023 (Blogger's text capacity not allowing me to deal properly with "ten to the 23rd") it should be noted that Mole Day officially started at 6:02 on the morning of October (10) 23rd.

So - Happy Day!



*If I've got this right (and honestly, I might not) Avogadro's number, 6.02 x 1023, provides the bridge between counting atoms, which we can't do, and measuring weight, which we CAN do, by being the 'constant' in the calculation. The mole is the measure of quantity of a "chemical entity", (i.e. atom, molecule, formula unit, electron or photon.) One mole of anything is just Avogadro's number of that something.