Friday, October 23, 2009

MOLEY

Today is Mole Day. Do you remember Mole Day from high school? If not, you probably did not go to my high school. Let me enlighten you:

"Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in North America on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, making the date 6:02 10/23.. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro constant, which is approximately 6.02×1023, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a mole, one of the seven base SI units."

I'll leave it to Eric or Wes to dumb that down for me since I have forgotten what most of that really means in the decade since I have been a junior in high school, aka the year of Chemistry.

The woman who taught chemistry at my high school for years and years was notoriously difficult. In fact, some students transferred out of the school for their junior year and came back for senior year. Eventually the school caught on and stopped letting them come back. But it was just my luck that she announced her retirement the summer before my junior year. We had another teacher, bless her heart - she was as kind as the day is long but my class ate her alive.

Anyway, I am racking my brain trying to recall what I did for my Mole Day project... I think my teacher actually turned it into a bonus point situation and nothing was required of us (a major change from previous years) so I may have scribbled together a poster or something the night before.

I know several of you readers who graduated before 2001 celebrated Mole Day in high fashion - tell us what you did to honor Mole Day!

5 comments:

  1. Oh, Mole Day. The lucky students in the class of '99 had a mascot for our "Mole Day." In fact, he hung around (literally) the entire week. "He" was a deceased mole that someone thought it would be a great idea to bring to school in a ziplock bag. Our crazy teacher hung the decaying mole (thankfully, IN his plastic bag) on the bulletin board and there he remained for the week. Sick, sick, sick.

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  2. That's awesome. We never had Mole Day at my high school, but I don't think I'll ever forget ole 6.022*10^23. Me and Avogadro, we were tight.

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  3. Our students still celebrate - they make t-shirts and wear them for part of it. Other than that - no clue.

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  4. Yeah! We celebrated Mole Day! We tie-dyed T-shirts, did the chicken dance, among other things. How that relates to Mole Day, I have no idea, but it was fun. Glad you reminded me what the actual day is for. Ha, that's the only part I didn't remember!

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  5. I used to know a song about it. It went something like,
    "equal volumes of gases at the same temp and pressure have the same number of molecules. Ammadeo(sp?) Avogadro. That's his hypothesis."

    or PV=nRT right?

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Oh goody!

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