The Avogadro Number

6.022 141 99 X 1023 This large number is approximately equal to the number of protons in a gram of pure protons. It is customary to introduce the term 'gram molecule' into explanations of the importance of this number: a gram molecule is a mole of the molecules: y grams of a molecule whose relative molecular mass is y, will contain 6.022 x 1023 molecules.

Historical note
Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, known as Amedeo Avogadro, one of the many creative Italians that have enriched our lives, was born in 1776 - a memorable date hitherto for other reasons. Possibly of aristocratic descent, he was a lawyer until he decided to devote himself to one of his other interests: in his late twenties he was appointed to the first chair in mathematical physics in Italy, at L' Universita` di Torino. Avogadro was the first to publish (in 1811) the idea that elements could exist as molecules - a latin word that he adopted for his hypothesis (which he wrote in French): explaining why mixing a volume of hydrogen gas with an equal volume of chlorine gas does not result in a doubling in the volume of gas. He died in 1856, this contribution to science was not recognised until 1860, when Stanislao Canizzaro , a co-national who for many years had been teaching a course of lectures on why Avogadro had been wrongfully ignored, was persuaded to propound his views at a conference in Karlsruhe, Germany - not far up from Heidelberg in the valley of the Rhine. The basis for the number named after Avogadro is the number of atoms of 12Carbon in 12 grams of 12Carbon. Below we show two pictures: one is a poor representation of a great Italian theoretician: the other a good representation of a poorly spelled Italian theoretician. We implore our students to notice the differences.

Fundamental quantities of Physics

1. Length: Metre The metre (or meter), symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole (at sea level), its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology. Since 1983, it is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum in 1299,792,458 of a second.[1]

2. Heat : Kelvin he kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units (SI) and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all thermal motion ceases in the classical description of thermodynamics. The reference point that defines the Kelvin scale is the triple point of water at 273.16 K (0.01 C; 32.02 F). The kelvin is defined as 1/273.16 of the difference between these two reference points.

3. Time : second The second (SI symbol: s), sometimes abbreviated sec., is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units (SI) base unit of time.[1] It may be measured using a clock.

Early definitions of the second were based on the apparent motion of the sun around the earth.[2] The solar day was divided into 24 hours, each of which contained 60 minutes of 60 seconds each, so the second was 186400 of the mean solar day. However, 19th- and 20th century astronomical observations revealed that this average time is lengthening, and thus the sun/earth motion is no longer considered a suitable basis for definition. With the advent of atomic clocks, it became feasible to define the second based on fundamental properties of nature. Since 1967, the second has been defined to be

the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.[1]

4. Luminous Intensity: Candela The candela (play /kndl/ or /kndil/; symbol: cd) is the SI base unit of luminous intensity; that is, power emitted by a light source in a particular direction, weighted by the luminosity function (a standardized model of the sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths, also known as the luminous efficiency function[4][5]). A common candle emits light with a luminous intensity of roughly one candela. If emission in some directions is blocked by an opaque barrier, the emission would still be approximately one candela in the directions that are not obscured. The word candela means candle in Latin, as well as in many modern languages.

5. Mass : Kilogram The kilogram (symbol: kg) is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI, from the French Le Systme International dUnits), which is the modern standard governing the metric system. The kilogram is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK), which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water. The avoirdupois (or international) pound, used in both the Imperial system and U.S. customary units, is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds.

6. Electric Current: Ampere he ampere (symbol: A) is the SI unit of electric current (symbol: I) and is one of the seven SI base units. It is named after Andr-Marie Ampre (17751836), French mathematician and physicist, considered the father of electrodynamics. In practice, its name is often shortened to amp.

In practical terms, the ampere is a measure of the amount of electric charge passing a point in an electric circuit per unit time with 6.241 1018 electrons, or one coulomb per second constituting one ampere.

7. Amount of substance: Moles The mole is a unit of measurement used in chemistry to express amounts of a chemical substance, equal to about 6.022141023 molecules of that substance. It is one of the base units in the International System of Units, and has the unit symbol mol.

The mole is widely used in chemistry, instead of units of mass or volume, as a convenient way to express the amounts of reagents and products of chemical reactions. For example, the chemical equation 2 H2 + O2 2 H2O implies that 2 mol of dihydrogen and 1 mol of dioxygen react to form 2 mol of water. The mole may also be used to express the number of atoms, ions, or other elementary entities in some sample. The concentration of a solution is commonly expressed by its molarity, the number of moles of the dissolved subtance per liter of solution. The number of molecules in a mole (known as Avogadro's number) is defined so that the mass of one mole of a substance, expressed in grams, is exactly equal to the substance's mean molecular weight. For example, the mean molecular weight of natural water is about 18.015, so one mole of water is about 18.015 grams. This property considerably simplifies many chemical and physical computations.