How many bits of air are there?

We were in the car one day, and going out as a family and I could hear my son breathing quite heavily and he asked……

“How many bits of air are there?”

My son loves numbers, he always wants to know how many things there are, how things are measured etc so this question didn’t surprise me at all. But I actually had no idea about this. I didn’t even know how air was measured!!! But my son liked to know the answers so when I finally had time and the mental capacity I researched it and air is made up of countless molecules—like nitrogen and oxygen—and there’s a special number used to measure them, called Avogadro’s number.  Avogadro (not Avocado as my son called him!!) was an Italian scientist, and he came up with a way to understand how the tiny molecules in the air behave. It didn’t escape me that my son was constantly asking scientific questions yet a few weeks ago he asked me “Does Science Matter?” and the basis of that question was that he didn’t want to be a scientist and so I couldn’t understand why he kept asking scientific questions. A scientific question seemed to be his favourite type of question!!

Avogadro’s most famous idea, known as Avogadro’s law tells us that, under the same conditions, equal volumes of gas contain the same number of particles so you can easily work out the number of “bits” of air using a formula and Avogadro’s number, and these particles interact in predictable ways. And interacting in predictable ways ensures the particles remain stable. Lets just take a moment and read that again….because as soon as I read it I started thinking about neurotypicals and neurodivergents. I couldn’t quite believe it that my research into one of my sons questions brought me back round to the very person he is. Just as the gas particles behave in a well-established pattern, neurotypical brains often process information, sensations, and emotions in typical, predictable, expected ways. But imagine if under the same conditions these particles in gas started behaving in different ways, not predictable, not the same as usual what would happen, they wouldn’t remain stable would they? Maybe these particles bounced around for example. The different interaction isn’t wrong; it’s just a new way of moving through space. So when gas particles behave unexpectedly, it could mean the system has new properties, like higher energy, increased pressure and because of this needs a different environment to maintain balance. So in this example you would adjust the conditions for the particles wouldn’t you. You wouldn’t adjust the particles would you. You would create an environment where the particles “worked” and remained stable. And that was my son. That was neurodivergence. A brain that processes and responds to the world differently from what’s expected, perhaps more intensely or with a unique rhythm. Just like those particles, neurodivergent individuals may need different supports or environments to thrive. For example, my son is a sensory seeker who needs more movement to regulate, just as a gas might need to be at a different temperature or pressure to behave in a stable way, my son needs that movement to keep himself right. So we should provide an environment where he is able to do that. We should not be trying to make him fit the environment, we need to adjust the environment for him.

So, how many bits of air are there? Well, thanks to Avogadro’s number, I now know it’s a mind-boggling amount—too many to really comprehend! But what amazed me most wasn’t the number itself. It was realizing that my son’s question wasn’t just about air. It was about him.

And what matters isn’t the “bits” but creating the right environment for them to move in harmony. And maybe that’s the lesson his school needs to understand. They need to look beyond the numbers, beyond the expectations of how things “should” be, and instead focus on creating the right environment for him to thrive. Perhaps I should give them a little science lesson—because, in many ways, my son is his own beautiful equation, and with the right understanding, the solution becomes clear.