Mole Day

    Amedeo Avogadro was born August 9,1776 in Turin, Italy. He was born to a family of lawyers. He followed his family's footsteps and graduated in ecclesiastical law at age 20 and began to practice law. But he was also interested in the natural sciences and in 1800 he began private studies in physics and mathematic. In 1809, he started teaching the natural sciences in a liceo in Vericelli. It was in Vericelli that Avogadro wrote a memoir in which he declared the hypothesis that is now known as Avogadro's law. In 1820, Avogadro became the first chair of mathematical physics at Turin University. He had six children and was reputed to be a religious man and also a discreet lady's man. He died July 9,1856.

Avogadro's law states that equal volumes of gases, at the same temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules. One of the most important contributions of Avogadro's work was his resolution of the confusion surrounding atoms and molecules. Avogadro believed that particles could be composed of molecules and that molecules could be composed of still simple units, atoms. The number of molecules in a mole was termed Avogadro's number in honor of Avogadro's theories. Avogadro's number has been experimentally determined to be 6.o23x10^23 molecules per gram-mole.


Here is our mole that we have done for this day.