Subject: How Big Is That Atom Anyway?

I am sure all you chemistry teachers have tried to show your students how small an atom really is. You have told them the size, had them calculate the number of atoms in one gram, or had them write out Avogadro's number the long way. Here is an interesting twist to teach the size of the atom. The idea for this activity came from the traditional "Thickness Of An Aluminum Sheet" lab activity which was in an old book I had. This new activity involves the same basic idea with just a little more interesting twist on it.

Files

How Big?
31K
(MS Word)

How Big?
18K
(PDF)

Jeff Kalember (kalemberj@gaylord.k12.mi.us)
Gaylord High School, Gaylord, MI