A Mol of Moles is an Infestation
There are many words in the English language that sound the same but mean something different. For example, tee and tea. Mole and mole (mol unit) also sound the same but mean very different things.
When you hear the world “mole” you might think of that little furry creature that digs holes in your yard. Or, you might think of a super secret double agent who has infiltrated the ranks of the enemy and is divulging all of the enemy’s top secret information to her superiors. But mole (abbreviated mol) is a lesser know word that is usually used in Chemistry. Mol is a constant – a number that doesn’t change. A mol, also known as Avogadro’s number, is exactly 6.02214076 x 1023 units of something. Anything! That number is essentially a 6 with 23 zeros after it. Yowza! That’s a big number.
A mol is an experimentally derived proportionality constant. It is based on exactly 0.012 kilograms of the isotope carbon-12. An isotope is an element that has a different number of particles in it’s nucleus. For example, carbon-12 and carbon-14 are isotopes. Carbon-12 has 12 particles (nucleons) in it’s nucleus (center) where carbon-14 has 14 particles in it’s nucleus.
One mol of carbon-12 (6.02 x 1023 atoms of carbon-12) weighs exactly 12 grams. One mol of carbon-14 weighs about 14 grams. And, 1 mol of nitrogen-16 weighs about 16 grams. Do you see a pattern? The mol makes the calculations in Chemistry much easier to follow and calculate.
So, 1 mol of moles would be a rodent infestation. I couldn’t resist that one. Ha ha. October 23, denoted 10/23 in the US, is recognized by some as Mole Day It starts at 6:02 am and ends at 6:02 pm. I guess geeks have nothing better to do than make esoteric holidays.
See Mole (unit) for more information.
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People have moles on their skin too!