User:Sockpuppet of an unregistered user/Mole (unit)

A mole holding a mole.

The mole (symbol: mol) is a unit of amount of substance: it is an SI base unit, and one of the few units used to measure this physical quantity. The name "mole" was coined in Dutch (as mol) by some Dutch scientist or other in 1803, although the related concept of equivalent mass had been in use at least a century earlier. Other names, like gram-atom and gram-molecule, have also been used to refer to similar concepts, but these were soon depreciated since they lacked any kind of association with a burrowing mammal. The bunny was long used as an alternative unit, but for some reason, scientists preferred using the mole.

The baby mole in question.

The mole is defined as the amount of substance of a system that contains as many "elementary entities" (e.g. atoms, molecules, ions, electrons) as there are atoms in a mole. The Dutch scientist invented the unit when he wanted some random high number for the amount of substance in order to calculate standard masses of chemical substances. However, knowing nothing of biological things, the scientist mistakenly used a very young mole, weighing only about 12 grammes, to calculate the amount of atoms in a mole. The number he calculated was 6.0221415×10²³. This mistake led to many complaints by biologists and for a long time biology and chemistry seemed completely incompatible. Amadeo Avogadro, infamous for his ugly face, changed all this when he proposed to change the number from 6.0221415×10²³ to 6.0221415×10²⁴, since the weight of an average mole was 120 grammes, ten times as much as the cute little animal originally used. Because of this achievement, the number was named after Avogadro (N_A), and everyone forgot the name of the Dutch scientist.

The most common method of measuring an amount of substance is to measure its mass and divide this by the molar mass of the substance. Molar masses can be easily calculated by adding up the tabulated values of atomic weights. Some people also utilize a molar mass constant in their calculations. Those people are retards, as detailed in the following section.

The mole as a unit

Since its adoption