Re: Avogadro Number

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#945

From: Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 22:15

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In article <foo> "Stephen M. Lacy" <sl31+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
   Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.science: 11-Dec-92 Avogadro Number by
   Guntur N Balaji@andrew.c 
   > Just wondering how Avogadro got to his number.  6.023E23 atoms....

   One more curious question, what EXACTLY is Avogadro's number?  It only
   has 24 digits, right?  (since we can't have < 1 atom)  I've never seen
   it anywhere, although I don't have access to Physics or Chemistry CRC's.

Well -- actually, there's no limit at all to the number of digits.  
The reason is that Avogadro's Number is a conversion factor between units,
rather than a specific count of something.  If you worked it out to the
last atom, exactly how many carbon-12 atoms it took to make a gram, then,
using the same conversion factor, you'd end up with some fraction of a 
proton left over if you then weighed out exactly a gram of hydrogen.

--
DON'T DRINK SOAP! DILUTE DILUTE! OK!

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From: zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest)
Subject: Re: Avogadro Number
In-Reply-To: "Stephen M. Lacy"'s message of Sun, 13 Dec 1992 19:29:41 -0500 
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References: <cf_xJpS00iUzM3g656@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 13 Dec 92 22:15:53
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