how many atom is in a pen?

Question: how many atom is in a pen?

Asked by thedman to Alexandra, Dean, Jess, Luisa, Sian on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Sian Foch-Gatrell answered on 16 Jun 2010:
  
  You can use Avogadro’s Number to work that out (which is 6.022×10 to the 23 power atoms per mole). So you just need to know how many moles there are in a pencil.. which I don’t know!
- Dean Whittaker answered on 16 Jun 2010:
  
  Interesting question. An atom is about 1 angstrom (0.0000000001 meters). So the volume of an atom if we assume it’s a cube to make things simple is (0.0000000001*0.0000000001*0.0000000001 = 0.00000000000000000000000000001 meters cubed). Thats A pen has a volume of something like 0.1*0.01*0.01 = 0.00001 meters cubed (again, lets make the pen rectangular to make things simple). So if you divide the volume of the pen by the volume of an atom you get a rough answer 1000000000000000000000000 atoms are in your pen.
- Alexandra Kamins answered on 16 Jun 2010:
  
  a lot. I’ll let Dean answer this one 😉
- Luisa Ostertag answered on 16 Jun 2010:
  
  Loads!

Question: how many atom is in a pen?