Avogadro and the mole
Amedeo Avogadro
1776-1856
Not given credit for his contributions to molecular chemistry for half a century, Amedeo Avogadro was eventually recognized for his work and now holds the honor of having his name attached to the ubiquitous chemical quantity that all high school chemistry students know well; the mole (Avogadro's number). In this podcast, Avogadro's ideas are discussed and the classification of matter from a particulate perspective is described. Listeners will come to see why Avogadro's work was so important and why he deserves his name on the unit used most commonly in chemical calculations.
Podcast length: 51:50
Show Notes:
Selected Awards and Publications associated with Amedeo Avagadro
Avogadro did not receive any significant awards. His work was not recognized as important in his own lifetime.
Discussed in the episode:
The classification of Matter
Joseph Gay-Lussac
Gay-Lussacs Law of Combining Volumes:
When gases combine chemically, they do so in small whole numbers by volume.
Jons Jakob Berzelius
Dualism:
According to Berzelius, all chemicals, whether natural or artificial, mineral or organic, could be distinguished and specified qualitatively by identifying their electrically opposing constituents.
Stanislao Cannizzaro
Among other things, he is famous for his influential role in the atomic-weight deliberations of the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860 in which Avogadro was recognized for his accomplishments.
Amedeo Avogadro
The hypothesis:
Equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of particles.
Josef Loschmidt
The number of particles is a cubic meter of air.
Jean Perrin
Called the value 6.02 x 10^23 particles Avogadro's Number
Tyndall Effect
Mole Day Information
The National Mole Day Foundation (https://www.facebook.com/NationalMoleDayFoundation/)