Are you celebrating National Mole Day?

National Mole Day—no, moles are not mammals that make tunnels under your lawn, nor brown spots on your skin, nor spies working within an organization—is a celebration of the chemical concept of the mole.

So, what is a mole? Here’s my Chemistry textbook definition:

Mole: “quantity of a substance that has a mass in grams numerically equal to its formula mass; equal to 6.02 x10²³ representative particles.”
Prentice Hall Chemistry, 2^nd ed., p. 951

In other words, if carbon has an atomic mass of 12.011 (look on your periodic table), then a mole of carbon atoms has a mass of 12.011 grams, and contains 6.02 x10²³ (or 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) atoms. This number is called Avogadro’s number.

National Mole Day is celebrated by chemists every year on October 23rd (10/23), starting at 6:02 A.M. Note that this was posted at 6:02 on 10/23! And how does one celebrate National Mole Day? Some do this by telling mole jokes. Here are a few:

1. What is the best shot Avogadro has ever done on a golf course?
2. Where does Avogadro stay when he is on vacation?
3. What does Avogadro put in his hot chocolate?
4. Which tooth did Avogadro have pulled?
5. How does Avogadro write to his friends?
6. What is Avogadro’s favorite Japanese sport?
7. How many atoms are in a dish of guacamole?

Click on “Read the rest of this entry” to see the answers.

National Mole Day website
Wikipedia article

Grace and Peace

1. What is the best shot Avogadro has ever done on a golf course?

A mole-in-one

2. Where does Avogadro stay when he is on vacation?

In a mole-tel

3. What does Avogadro put in his hot chocolate?

Marsh-mole-ows

4. Which tooth did Avogadro have pulled?

One of his molars

5. How does Avogadro write to his friends?

By e-mole

6. What is Avogadro’s favorite Japanese sport?

Su-mole wrestling

7. How many atoms are in a dish of guacamole?

Avocado’s number