[Physics] Number of particles – dimensional or not

dimensional analysisunits

I think that "number of particles" should be a dimensional quantity, with the same dimension as "amount of substance", because they are only scaled by Avogadro's constant, which then should be dimensionless.

For instance, an electron in an hydrogen atom has an energy of $-2,18 \times 10^{-18} \:\text{J}$. Then, the ionization energy should be $2,18 \times 10^{-18} \:\text{J atom}^{-1} = 1312 \:\text{kJ mol}^{-1} $. Nevertheless, the standard is to consider the first one as plain joules, without the "amount" dimension.

Is there any reason behind this, and by consequence the dimensional character of $N_A$?

Best Answer

Avogadros constant is not dimensionless. It is the number of atoms/molecules per mole. The mole is a substance unit which was introduced by chemists before the number of atoms/molecules per mole was actually known. The situation is similar to the arbitrary choice of the coulomb as a unit of charge which disregards the number of elementary charges it is composed of.

The number of particles is, indeed, dimensionless as long as you don't define it by the equivalent number of moles.