February 2013

# Creative mole conversions

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Jean Hein, University of Waterloo, ON

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As chemistry teachers, we are always looking for creative ways to demonstrate that a mole is just a number. We challenge our readers to send in the most creative mole conversion you have asked of your students. We will start you off in the next few issues in hope of stimulating your creativity, and perhaps to provide you with some fun mole conversions for your classroom. (Below are some mole conversions from this readers' challenge and request.)

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Mole of tweets.

Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites today. As of June 2012 statistics show that 400 million tweets are sent per day on the site.
How many years would it take for twitter users to post a mole of tweets?

A mole of tweets (Answer: 4.12 x 1012 years)

## A mole of KD noodles in Canada

In the average year, each Canadian eats 3.2 boxes of Kraft Dinner.1 If a box of Kraft Dinner contains 1335 noodles, estimate how many years it would take for all of Canada to eat one mole of Kraft Dinner noodles? In 2011, Statistics Canada reported a population of 34 484 000.
(Answer 4.1 x 1012 years)

You could consider having students find out the number of noodles in an average box. Students could be encouraged to think of different ways to find the number without resorting to counting each noodle.

## A mole of KD noodles in USA

In comparison, the United States eats 55% fewer Kraft Dinners per person than Canada.1 Estimate how many days it would take for all the United states to consume one mole of Kraft Dinner noodles? Population estimate is 313 914 040 as of July 1, 2012, from United States Census Bureau website.
(Answer: 1.0 x 1012 years)

The Walrus magazine, September 2012 http://thewalrus.ca/manufacturing-taste/

## Mole of PSY

Recently, PSY’s hit song “Gangnam Style” became the most
watched video on YouTube with over a billion views. If
“Gangnam Style” continues to get 6.5 million views per day, how
many years will it take for the video to have a mole of views?
(Answer: 2.5 x 1014 years)

## Mole of winnings

This conversion was sent in by Alexis Christmas, Fredericton
High School, Fredericton, NB. I ask my students to imagine that they have won the lottery. The prize is a mole of dollars. I then ask them to calculate how many years it would take to spend their winnings if they spent a million dollars a second. They are surprised when they find the answer
is in the tens of billions of years!!
(Answer: 1.9 x 1010 years)

## A mole of lightning

Lightning strikes Earth about 100 times each second, or 8.6 million times a day. Based on the information above, estimate the minimum number of years it will take for one mole of lightning to hit the earth.
Answer: 1.9 x 1014 years

(Did you remember to take into account leap years? Ask your students if leap years makes a difference in their answer. Then you can have a discussion on significant digits.)

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