JEE Chemistry — Physical Chemistry

Mole Concept

Why do chemists use a word that sounds like a fuzzy backyard animal to measure out chemicals? It is because atoms are so unbelievably tiny that counting them individually is completely impossible.

Think of it like buying eggs. You do not buy seventy-two individual eggs; you buy six dozen. A dozen is just a convenient package size of twelve.

For chemists, that package is called a mole. But because atoms are so small, a mole is a staggeringly huge number: six point zero two two times ten to the twenty-third power.