Pins & Angels
How many pins fit on the head of an angel?
———- from Carol Janacek of Brooklyn, NY
Avogadro’s Number. That’s 6 point something times 10 to the 23rd, I believe. Avogadro, of course, was both a scientist and a bishop of the Holy Roman Empire. He and Thomas Aquinas captured Visigoths and made them dress as any one of the nine choirs of angels. The didactic duo then drove crude pins — or spikes, as we would call them today — into the unlucky Barbarians. Then, as moles devoured the Visigoths, researchers would count up the number of spikes being used and arrived at Avogadro’s Number. How this experiment ended up revealing accurate data about angel’s heads is beyond this modern day scientist, but then there’s a lot in the history of science that defies an upbeat explanation. For good reasons, I guess. I suppose there’s some sort of poetic justice to this whole story. If so, it eludes me.
Avogadro’s Number. That’s 6 point something times 10 to the 23rd, I believe. Avogadro, of course, was both a scientist and a bishop of the Holy Roman Empire. He and Thomas Aquinas captured Visigoths and made them dress as any one of the nine choirs of angels. The didactic duo then drove crude pins — or spikes, as we would call them today — into the unlucky Barbarians. Then, as moles devoured the Visigoths, researchers would count up the number of spikes being used and arrived at Avogadro’s Number. How this experiment ended up revealing accurate data about angel’s heads is beyond this modern day scientist, but then there’s a lot in the history of science that defies an upbeat explanation. For good reasons, I guess. I suppose there’s some sort of poetic justice to this whole story. If so, it eludes me. 