09/08/2020
It has been over two centuries Amedeo Avogadro was born, but he pioneered the discovery of a number so big it could outlast the universe.
Once a practising ecclesiastical lawyer and the Count of Turin, Italy, over the course of his academic career Amedeo Avogadro has not only identified the chemical formulas of many common compounds and wrote the law of combined gas pressures, but has also paved way for the discovery of Avogadro's number, which describes the number of particles in a mole of substance. It is thanks to him that a bridge exists between chemistry and atomic physics, and so today, 244 years after he was born and 111 years after he gave his name to this number, let us celebrate this pioneer of atomic physics.
Happy Birthday, Count Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cerreto!
References
[1] Brock, B. (2006, June 30). Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856). Retrieved August 5, 2020, from Royal
Society of Chemistry: https://edu.rsc.org/feature/amadeo-avogadro-1776-1856/2020088.article
[2] Amedeo Avogadro, Italian Chemist. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2020, from Timeline Index:
https://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/2279
[3] Amedeo Avogadro. (2015, January 12). Retrieved August 5, 2020, from Famous Scientists:
https://www.famousscientists.org/amedeo-avogadro/