Avogadro's number
In chemistry and physics, the Avogadro constant (named after the scientist Amedeo Avogadro) is the number of constituent particles, usually atoms or molecules, that are contained in the amount of substance given by one mole. Thus, it is the proportionality factor that relates the molar mass of a compound to the mass of a sample. Avogadro's constant, often designated with the symbol NA or L, has the value 6.022140857(74)×1023 mol−1 in the International System of Units (SI).
Previous definitions of chemical quantity involved Avogadro's number, a historical term closely related to the Avogadro constant, but defined differently: Avogadro's number was initially defined by Jean Baptiste Perrin as the number of atoms in one gram-molecule of atomic hydrogen, meaning one gram of hydrogen. This number is also known as Loschmidt constant in German literature. The constant was later redefined as the number of atoms in 12 grams of the isotope carbon-12 (12C), and still later generalized to relate amounts of a substance to their molecular weight. For instance, to a first approximation, 1 gram of hydrogen element (H), having the atomic (mass) number 1, has 6.022×1023 hydrogen atoms. Similarly, 12 grams of 12C, with the mass number 12 (atomic number 6), has the same number of carbon atoms, 6.022×1023. Avogadro's number is a dimensionless quantity, and has the same numerical value of the Avogadro constant given in base units. In contrast, the Avogadro constant has the dimension of reciprocal amount of substance. The Avogadro constant can also be expressed as 0.602214... mL mol−1 Å−3, which can be used to convert from volume per molecule in cubic ångströms to molar volume in millilitres per mole.
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