Fascinating Facts
Avogadro Number
- Most Chemistry students will be able to give the value of Avogadro Number without hesitation when asked as 6.023 x 1023.
- But most of us do not really appreciate the significance of the number, that is how large or small it is.
- Whatever concepts we learn we need to see it in relation to the physical reality of it in our daily life without which the learning may be devoid of understanding and therefore application.
- The words big, tall, fat, far are meaningless by themselves. They acquire a meaning when there is comparison.
- “A rat is small”. Well true if it is being compared with an elephant and certainly not with respect to an ant.
- Let us now attempt to visualise how big or small Avoagadro Number is, by using some comparisons involving events in our daily life.
The area of Karnataka one of the 25 States in India is, 191,791 square kilometers(Oxford Atlas).
Suppose one morning One single Avogadro number of water drops fall on this state to what height will the water level raise?
(assuming the water remains within the state borders) Will there be any significant raise at all? Will it be a few mm? a few Cm?, Or kilometers?.
Suppose you had One Avogadro number of dollars/ruppees with you, obviously you are rich, and you decide to share your wealth with the less fortunate beings.
You start giving away 1000 dollars/ruppees per second per person to every human being on this planet, how long will it take before you are “dollar less”. Consider the human population on this planet to be about 6 billion.