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Math in the Physical Sciences

Chemistry and Math

What is Avogadro’s number?

A vogadro’s number (also called Avogadro’s constant or Avogadro’s figure) was determined by Italian physicist Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, Count of Quarengna and Cerreto (1776–1856), who was also the first one to use the term “molecule” in chemistry. It represents the number of elementary entities, such as atoms, molecules, or formula units, in a mole of any chemical substance (a mole is approximately 6.02214199 × 1023 atoms, according to the most recent number from the National Institute of Standards and Technology). To translate even further, a mole is the molecular weight of a substance in grams; one mole is the amount of a substance that contains Avogadro’s number. For example, the number of carbon atoms in 12 grams of the substance carbon-12 is equal to one mole.