Mr_Pot
Well-Known Member
Wow! that easy guide is the most complicated explanation of moles that I have ever seen.
A mole is the molecular weight of a substance in grams. If sodium has an atomic weight of 23 and chlorine has an atomic weight of 35 then a mole of sodium chloride (one sodium and one chlorine atom) would weigh 23+35 = 58 grams and a millimole would weigh 0.058 grams.
So in a HbA1c test mmol/mol is the weight (x 1000) of hemoglobin molecules that have glucose attached divided by the weight of all the hemoglobin molecules in a sample.
Interestingly a mole of any substance has the same number of atoms - Avogadro's Number (6.023 x 10 to the power of 23) so @catapillar 's idea about counting atoms is correct.