Mole (unit) Mole (unit) The mole is the unit of measurement for amount of substance in the International System of Units (SI). Effective 20 May 2019, the mole is defined as the amount of a chemical substance that contains exactly (Avogadro's constant) constitutive particles, e.g., atoms, molecules, ions or electrons. This definition was adopted in November of 2018, revising its old definition based on the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12 (C) (the isotope of carbon with standard atomic weight 12 by definition). The mole is an SI base unit, with the unit symbol mol. The mole is widely used
International System of Units Another three base units (for temperature, amount of substance and luminous intensity) were added later. The early metric systems defined a unit of weight as a base unit, while the SI defines an analogous unit of mass. In everyday use, these are mostly interchangeable, but in scientific contexts the difference matters. Mass, strictly the inertial mass, represents a quantity of matter. It relates the acceleration of a body to the applied force via Newton's law, : force equals mass times acceleration. A force of 1 N (newton) applied to a mass of 1 kg will accelerate it at 1 m/s.