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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2002  > October  >
Chemistry for Everyone
For Mole Problems, Call Avogadro: 602-1023
R. E. Uthe
General College, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0434
Cover
October 2002
Vol. 79 No. 10
p. 1213
Abstract
General education students who have never encountered Avogadro’s number often have difficulty grasping its magnitude and the resulting implications for sizes and numbers of particles in common materials they see around them. I have surveyed the approaches used by several chemical educators. This article describes the techniques I find best help introductory students in General College at the University of Minnesota become familiar with Avogadro’s number and mole calculations. They involve estimating numbers of common objects and then calculating the length of time needed to count large numbers of them. For example, the immense amount of time required to count a mole of sand grains at one grain per second greatly exceeds the age of the universe. The calculations also reinforce procedures for manipulating exponents and applying problem-solving techniques.
More Information
*  Citation
 Uthe, R. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2002 79 1213.
*  Keywords
 General Chemistry; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Nonmajor Courses; Problem-Based Learning; Teaching / Learning Aids
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 August 29, 2002
March 16, 2005
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