OT: Happy Mole Day

R

Rich S

Joined
Sep 23, 2005
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As a retired chemist, I must abide by the alchemist's creed and am required to wish all of you a happy and pleasant Mole Day with many more to come.

Rich S
 
To borrow some rousing words from the legendary Bill S.:

And Avogadro Avogadrian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that mixes his chemicals with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen the world over now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here in the lab,
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Mole Day.


:D
 
Scott -

Love the poem! Great for those of us who relish in working among smelly, toxic, flammable
and explosive chemicals. And making all sorts of neat things. Long live the chemists!!
 
bdmicarta said:
I thought this was about Mexican food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(sauce)
Click to expand...

Sorry, no; it's chemistry!

Mole Day is a Nationally unofficially recognized day in celebration of
> Avogadro's Law which is one of the corner stones of chemistry
> and science. It says that in any pure substance, 1 gram molecular
> weight (1 mole) there are 6.02 x 10^23 (10 to the 23rd power) number
> of molecules. It is celebrated on Oct. 23rd (10,23) from 6.02 AM
> until 6.02 PM. Hence: 6.02x10^23 Avogadro's Number.

Rich S
 
It is the number of atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. Make sure you are refering to one gram of carbon 12. If you look at the atomic mass and add all the parts of an element or compound, that weight (if the units are changed to grams) contains 1 mole of atoms or molecules. So, NaCl is (22.99) + (35.45) = 58.44, in grams that would be 6.022x10e23 molecules of salt, technically. A covalent compound would have probably been better as an example.

Since atomic weight on the periodic chart is based off the mass of carbon 12, this is a way to define the molecular weight (absolute mass) of a mole of any pure substance (or 6.022x10e24 individual atoms/molecules).

Anyway, if that doesn't clear anything up, I don't know how to explain it without going into TOO much detail.
 
Q: How many guacs are in a bowl of guacamole?
A: Avocados number!

Q: If a mole of moles were digging a mole of holes, what would you see?
A: A mole of molasses!

Q: What does Avogadro put in his hot chocolate?
A: Marsh-mole-ows!
 
Daniel -

Good ones :-) and of course Lincoln was correct - I met him once at an ACS meeting :-)

Rich S
 
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