National Mole Day (October 23rd)

National Mole Day is celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. It celebrates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 × 10²³), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. National Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry, and schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.

For a given molecule, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the atomic mass of the molecule. For example, the water molecule has an atomic mass of 18, therefore one mole of water weighs 18 grams.

An atom of neon has an atomic mass of 20, therefore one mole of neon weighs 20 grams. In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro’s Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858) and he received credit for this after his death.

Learn about National Mole Day

National Mole Day has been created to commemorate a basic measuring unit in chemistry. This is the unit of 6.02 × 10²³, which is Avogadro’s Number. You may think that it seems a little bit extreme to create a day just because of one chemical measuring unit. However, it is so much more than this.

The day represents an excellent opportunity to foster interest in chemistry. A lot of schools around the world use National Mole Day as the perfect opportunity to arrange different activities related to moles and/or chemistry.

History of National Mole Day

The day was established by the National Mole Day foundation to be celebrated on Oct 23rd from 6:02am to 6:02pm, commemorating the aforementioned Avogadro’s Number (6.02 × 10²³). The purpose of the day was to help encourage people to take an active interest in chemistry, and to alert people of the interesting facts surrounding the mole unit.

This day has been observed for quite some time now. In fact, the origins of National Mole Day can be traced back to an early 1980s magazine article in The Science Teacher. Maurice Oehler, a high school chemistry teacher at the time, was inspired by this article. The teacher, who came from the Wisconsin area of Prairie du Chien, and he then founded the National Mole Day Foundation, known as NMDF, on the 15th of May in 1991.

A lot of schools around the world celebrate this day. This is especially the case in places such as Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United States. They use National Mole Day to get their students interested in the subject of chemistry, so they carefully plan out different activities that are fun and either relate to moles, chemistry, or both.

How to celebrate National Mole Day

You can start your celebration by reading up on the hypothetical question of “What if one had a mole of moles?” We’ll warn you ahead of time that this description gets a bit complex and almost certainly gruesome. Consider it your scientifically accurate horror story for Halloween.

You can also create Mole themed art, focusing on the idea that every molecule has its own mole number, representing the weight of a mole of a given molecule. Water has a mole number of 18 grams, for instance, while neon has a molar mass of 20 grams.

The animal that shares the same name is the unofficial mascot of National Mole Day, and one of the most popular ways of Celebrating National Mole Day is by creating Mole themed plushie mascots and built designs that represent that Mole.

There are plenty of other different activities that you can enjoy on National Mole Day. This includes a number of activities that you can bring into the classroom if you are a teacher. For example, you can do an activity whereby the children determine Avogadro’s number experimentally. You could also get the children to figure out how much water is in one mole of water.

Other activities, especially for younger children, including making up a song about a mole. If you are an adult and you want to get involved in National Mole Day, you could make up your own jokes about moles and share them on social media. Here is one that we stumbled across on National Mole Day:

“Where did Avogadro stay on his vacation? A mole-tel.”

Ok, ok, it’s not the best, but you get the point!

There are lots of other unique and random ideas for activities that you can do on National Mole Day. For example, you could determine how much aluminum foil is required in order to create a 0.5 mole aluminum sculpture? You can then get the foil out and start being a bit creative. Make sure you share your creations on social media and encourage other people to get involved.

If you do some more digging online, you will find that there are plenty of other weird and wonderful activities that you can enjoy on National Mole Day! If you come up with any unique suggestions, make sure you share them with us. We would love to hear what you get up to on this date!