A mole is more or less just a number for counting something. The Clear Science staff like to compare it to a dozen. You know that a dozen of something means there are 12 of that thing—for example a dozen doughnuts. A mole of something is 6.022 × 10^23 of that thing. This is called Avogadro’s number, and if you write it out not in scientific notation, it is: 602,214,179,000,000,000,000,000 The standard used to define a mole is the number of carbon atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. This excellent website has pictures showing moles of various substances, including carbon, which we have borrowed for the graphic above. You calculate how many moles you have as shown, with the number of grams per mole you read off the periodic table. (Atomic mass, which is the number with decimal points in it.)

A mole is more or less just a number for counting something. The Clear Science staff like to compare it to a dozen. You know that a dozen of something means there are 12 of that thing—for example a dozen doughnuts.

A mole of something is 6.022 × 10^23 of that thing. This is called Avogadro’s number, and if you write it out not in scientific notation, it is:

  • 602,214,179,000,000,000,000,000

The standard used to define a mole is the number of carbon atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. This excellent website has pictures showing moles of various substances, including carbon, which we have borrowed for the graphic above.

You calculate how many moles you have as shown, with the number of grams per mole you read off the periodic table. (Atomic mass, which is the number with decimal points in it.)

Tags: science chemistry mole atoms