HAPPY MOLE DAY to YOU
Annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. there are those that celebrate Mole Day. It is based on Avogodro number: 6.02 times 10 to the 23 power. Mole Day is a celebration of chemistry. In chemistry, a mole is a basic unit of measure defined as a mass (in grams) equal to the atomic weight of a molecule. For example, the atomic weight of water is 18, then one mole of water is 18 grams. One mole of a substance contains Avogodro number of molecules of atoms of that substance. Amadeo Avogodro was an Italian scientist who published his hypothesis on atoms in 1811. Fifty years after his hypothesis was published (and two years after his death) scientists realized that his work could help them in solving their research. Avogodro is referred to as the Father of Chemistry. Official Mole Day celebrations began in high school chemistry classrooms. In 1991, the National Mole Day Foundation was formed. The Foundation organizes and supports Mole Day celebrations across the country. What does one do to celebrate Mole Day? Lots.
The Mole Its History and Use by Anthony Carpi, Ph.D. |
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Simply put, the mole represents a number. Just as the term dozen refers to the number twelve, the mole represents the number 6.02 x 1023. (If you’re confused by the form of this number refer to our The Metric System module). Now that’s a big number! While a dozen eggs will make a nice omelet, a mole of eggs will fill all of the oceans on earth more than 30 million times over. Think about it: It would take 10 billion chickens laying 10 eggs per day more than 10 billion years to lay a mole of eggs. So why would we ever use such a big number? Certainly the local donut store is not going to “supersize” your dozen by giving you a mole of jelly-filled treats. The mole is used when we’re talking about numbers of atoms and molecules. Atoms and molecules are very tiny things. A drop of water the size of the period at the end of this sentence would contain 10 trillion water molecules. Instead of talking about trillions and quadrillions of molecules (and more), it’s much simpler to use the mole. History of the Mole Molar Mass
Other atomic weights are listed on the periodic table (see our Periodic Table page). For each element listed, measuring out a quantity of the element equal to its atomic weight in grams will yield 6.02 x 1023 atoms of that element. The atomic weight of an element identifies both the mass of one mole of that element and the total number of protons and neutrons in an atom of that element. How can that be? Let’s look at hydrogen. One mole of hydrogen atoms will weigh 1.01 grams.
Each hydrogen atom consists of one proton surrounded by one electron. But remember, the electron weighs so little that it does not contribute much to an atom’s weight. Ignoring the weight of hydrogen’s electrons, we can say that one mole of protons (H nuclei) weighs approximately one gram. Since protons and neutrons have about the same mass, a mole of either of these particles will weigh about one gram. For example, in one mole of helium, there are two moles of protons and two moles of neutrons – four grams of particles. Molecular Weight For example, every water molecule (H2O) has two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. One mole of water molecules will contain two moles of hydrogen and one mole of oxygen.
A bottle filled with exactly 18.02 g water will contain 6.02 x 1023 water molecules. The concept of fractions and multiples described above also applies to molecules: 9.01 g of water would contain 1/2 mole, or 3.01 x 1023 molecules. You can calculate the molecular weight of any compound simply by summing the weights of atoms that make up that compound. |
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