⚗️ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Happy National Mole Day!

Chemistry students from coast to coast will be celebrating National Mole Day today (10/23) between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. — and we hope you will be joining them!

Mole Day is a humorous holiday recognizing the mole — not the small insectivorous mammal, but rather the standard unit within the International System of Units (SI) that measures the amount of substance in a sample of matter. (The term “mole” in chemistry was derived in a rather roundabout fashion from the word “molecule.” It is abbreviated mol.)

A mole in the International System of Units is defined as 6.02 × 10²³ of something. If you have 6.02 × 10²³ carbon atoms, you have a mole of carbon atoms; if you have 6.02 × 10²³ water molecules, you have a mole of water molecules. The curious number 6.02 × 10²³ is famously known as Avogadro’s number. It has a long history that we won’t go into here, and it was originally defined as the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon. But suffice it to say that sooner or later every science student learns that Avogadro’s number is six-point-oh-two-times-ten-to-the-twenty-third and that that’s how much a mole is.

And so — praise Avogadro! — that makes 6:02 a.m. on 10/23 the start of National Mole Day, which ends twelve hours later at 6:02 p.m.

You can find a whole host of additional facts, figures, and historical information about the subject of weights and measures in the Science & Technology section of your homeschool almanac — it’s one of the oldest scientific and technological subjects in all of human history.

Happy National Mole Day to all! What measurements are you taking and what idiosyncratic holidays are you and your students celebrating in your home academy this Cygnus Term?

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