Mole Day

My brother-in-law finds the most interesting 'days':

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

My sister-in-law remembered "That's 10 to the 23rd - pretty much the only thing I remember from high school chemistry!" I had no clue as to what they were talking about. I must have drifted that day in class.

A little research helps fill in the blanks of knowledge. Our catalog notes over 150,000 titles. Surely there will be answers to be found. I did a search in our catalog for 'mole'. Nada. I did a search for 'Avogadro'. Still nothing in the catalog.

Where could I find Avogadro? E-books are easy to search through, individually and as a group. A search for the subject 'chemistry' turned up a few titles. I selected an EBSCO e-book, Organic Chemist's Desk Reference.
..To search within a title, you must first select 'E-Book Full Text' (on the left side of the screen).
.....The second step is to select the search icon that looks like a magnifying glass over a piece of paper (right side of the screen at the top on the tool bar that runs down the right side of the document).
I searched in that title for Avogadro. Zero results.

To search throughout all of the Ebsco e-books for Avogadro, I used the main search box at the top of the screen. I needed to clear the box of the number for , Organic Chemist's Desk Reference. That search retrieved 13 titles! More books than I wanted to look through to sate my curiosity.

Where could I find just enough information about Avogadro? Reminds me of Goldilocks- first too little, then too much- what would be just right?

Among the more than 500 reference books, Credo Reference has just the right amount of information on both the man and the concept. Avogadro from Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary gives the definition. Avogadro , (Lorenzo Romano) Amedio (Carlo) (1776 - 1856) from The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists tells about the man, himself!

Credo Reference is available on our Library page with the password. It is also available through GALILEO.

Your CTC campus librarian can give you the logins!


-kss