On Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:40:43 -0400, Terry Reedy wrote: > On 8/15/2013 2:28 PM, Chris Angelico wrote: >> On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Joshua Landau <jos...@landau.ws> >> wrote: >>> On 15 August 2013 16:43, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> A mole is as much a number (6e23) as the light year is a number >>>> (9.5e15). >>> >>> A mole is a number. A light year is a unit. >> >> A mole is an amount of something. Avogadro's Number is a number, which >> is what I was hinting at :) > > The unit for 'mole' is 'ion', 'atom', or 'molecule', as appropriate for > the 'something'. In other words, the units are the reacting input units > and resulting output units in a particular chemical reaction.
Careful about the use of the word "unit", you're likely to confuse people into thinking "atom" is a unit of measurement like inches, seconds, grams or ohms. Naturally when dealing with moles of substance you have to take into account the kind of substance. In much the same way it makes a difference whether you are catering for a dozen people, a dozen couples, or a dozen football teams, a mole of oxygen molecules is not the same as a mole of oxygen atoms. But it's still the same number of things in each case, only the thing differs. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
