Big Week in Chemistry Coming Up!

October 21 - 27, 2012 is National Chemistry Week (NCW) (sponsored by the American Chemical Society) and marks the 25th anniversary of the NCW program designed to promote the value of chemistry in everyday life.  This years theme is Nanotechnology: The Smallest Big Idea In Science and is a partnership between NCW and Nanoscale Informational Science Education Network (NISE).  Yes, a couple of tongue twisters.

Also happening this week is National Mole Day (sponsored by the National Mole Day Foundation)  which takes place 6:02 am and 6:02 pm on October 23 in honor of Avogadro's Number (6.02 × 10²³) which is a basic unit of measurement in chemistry (602-1023 is also my colleague's, Mr. Ciccone, phone number, or so he tells his students).  If refers to the number of particles in one mole of substance.

(from the mole day website)
For a given substance, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the atomic mass of the substance.  For example: carbon has an atomic mass 12, therefore one mole of carbon is 12 grams.  One mole of substance contains 6.02 × 10²³ particles of that substance.  This relationship was first recognized by Amadeo Avogadro.  Thank you Amadeo!

sources:
American Chemical Society
National Mole Day Foundation, Inc
wikipedia