Mole Day is celebrated on October 23 annually and is celebrated by chemists, chemistry students and chemistry enthusiasts across the world. Mole Day is an unofficial was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry and is observed between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m., making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro number.
Mole Day Origin
Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s. Maurice Oehler, from Wisconsin, USA created an organization called the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991, inspired by this article.
Many high schools around the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Canada celebrate Mole Day as a way to get their students interested in chemistry. Mole Day is an integral part of National Chemistry Week held in the United States by American Chemical Society (ACS) to raise public awareness of the importance of chemistry in everyday life.
What is a mole?
The mole is the base unit of the amount of substance in the International System of Units. For a given molecule, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the molar mass of the molecule. For example, the water molecule has an molar mass of 18, therefore one mole of water weighs 18 grams. Similarly, a mole of neon has a molar mass of 20 grams. In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro’s Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858) and he received credit for this after his death.
Avogadro Number
Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10²³) is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Avogadro's number is number of units in one mole of any substance (defined as its molecular weight in grams). The units may be electrons, atoms, ions, or molecules, depending on the nature of the substance and the character of the reaction (if any).
It is named after the Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro, an Italian scientist, most noted for his contribution to molecular theory now known as Avogadro's law.