Yesterday we were introduced to the concept that 6.02 x 10^23 particles of something is equivalent to a unit called the mole. For more about how this number, called Avagadro’s number. Student’s wishing to learn more about how that number was calculated are encouraged to read the Scientific American article How was Avagadro’s Number Determined? The mole is one of the basic units of measurement in science – part of the International System of Units (SI units). To learn more about SI units, including an update on how the kilogram as about to be redefined, check out the Nature article titled New Definitions of Scientific Units are on the Horizon. As a brief refresher of the mole (and explicitly connecting the value of the mole to Avagadro’s number), we watched the Crash Course video below (at 0.75 speed) from about time stamps 5:30 to 8:00.
After the video, we worked through some example problems from yesterday’s molar conversion worksheet and also from the Chapter 13/14 study guide. The remaining 15 minutes of class were used to work through the Lesson 79 PowerPoint in which we ultimately compared the toxicities of regular and diet soda, containing fructose and aspartame, respectively. We will work through the Lesson 79 Worksheet tomorrow as part of our review of Chapters 13 and 14.
The Art of Science 