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Given that 1 mile = 160934 cm, calculate the height of a stack of one mole of

pennies in miles. (Hint: begin the conversion with 1 mole of pennies.) Show your work.
The distance to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is 2.6 x 10^13 miles.

User DaddyRatel
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1 Answer

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Answer: 1 mole of stacked pennies would reach a height of 5.69x10^17 miles.

Explanation: The U.S. penny has a thinkness of 1.52mm. One mole of pennies would have:

(1 mole pennies)(6.02x10^23 pennies/mole)*(1.52mm/penny) = 9.15x10^23 mm for 1 mole of pennies. One mile = 1.609x10^6 mm.

(9.15x10^23 mm)/( 1.609x10^6 mm/mile) = 5.69x10^17 miles for 1 mole of pennies.

That would reach Alpha Centauri (5.69x10^17 miles/2.6 x 10^13 miles)= 2.19x10^4 times.

There is a coin shortage in the US, so good luck. Send me your spare pennies.

[Note: I did this quickly, so please check the work. A mole is indeed a big number, but . . .]

User IftekharDani
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