Subject: Re: Avogadro's number

From: [email-masked] (Alan Shusterman)
Date: 11 Mar 99 17:03:29 PST

Several worthwhile articles re: Avogadro's number, its history, and how it is measured have appeared in the Journal of Chemical Education over the last few decades. The Journal has a searchable web site, so you should have no trouble finding these references.

Those who are interested in the number may also be interested in current efforts to redefine the kilogram. The current definition = a lump of metal in Paris. The desired definition = a certain number of atoms of a certain substance. The trick is how to count these atoms with sufficient accuracy. Articles about the kilogram effort have appeared in either Science or Nature (I forget which, sorry) during the last year or so.

Alan

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Alan Shusterman
Department of Chemistry
Reed College
Portland, OR
www.reed.edu/~alan