Magpie
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How small is a molecule of water?
I was trying to demonstrate how extremely small is a molecule of water in comparison to ordinary objects using the following calculation. This was to
a group of professionals that I have coffee with each morning: 1 electrical engineer and past vice president, 1 mechanical engineer, 1 biologist, and
1 chemist who turned to the dark side (HR manager).
Molecules in a Drop of Water vs Grains of Sand on All the Beaches on Earth
1. Grains of sand on Earth estimate: 7.5 x 10^18, or 7,500,000,000,000,000,000 grains. Source: University of Hawaii researchers
2. Molecules of water in a drop using Avogadro's number:
(6.023 x 10^23 molecules/mole)(mole/18.02 grams)(1 gram/20 drops) =
1.67 x 10^21 = 1,670,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules
Therefore, there are 1000 times more molecules in a drop of water than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth!
The EE checked my zeros. The chemist and the ME grunted "so what." The biologist said "there are 22 drops in a gram." Others just rolled their
eyes.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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LearnedAmateur
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Here's one, if you scaled up a 2mm capillary tube so that it covers roughly the distance from New York City to Kansas City, a water molecule within it
will be about the size of a basketball. These are my calculations:
-----------
(Di)
Water molecule = 2.75*10^-10m
Capillary tube = 0.002m
Basketball = 0.24m
0.002/(2.75*10^-10) = 7272727 (#H2O to cover CT diameter)
0.24*7272727 = 1745km (scaling up ratio to basketball size)
NYC -> KC = ~1950km
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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aga
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Well, i suppose people like something they can grab a hold of.
Maybe try relating that to something, a bit like the 'ton of bricks or a ton of feathers' thing.
Difficult to suggest anything else for your morning self-help meetings without talking to the supervising psychiatrist first 
[Edited on 17-11-2017 by aga]
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phlogiston
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On the same scale, the nucleus of the hydrogen atoms is still only 1.6 micrometers.
The LIGO gravitational wave detectors detect movements in the distance between two mirrors that are 10,000 times smaller than that...
Mentally scaling things helps to gain an intuitive feel for the relative dimensions, but it remains really difficult to imagine these kinds of numbers
in an absolute sense.
[Edited on 17-11-2017 by phlogiston]
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"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer |
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NEMO-Chemistry
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I was going to mention Hydrogen, when you look at a water molecule like this, then you see why its really hard to contain hydrogen.
Seems to escape from most things.
The other thing that popped in my head, does a water molecule have a fixed size? If electrons wiz around and bonds flex, then surely a molecule kinda
pulses size wise?
[Edited on 17-11-2017 by NEMO-Chemistry]
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LearnedAmateur
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Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry  |
The other thing that popped in my head, does a water molecule have a fixed size? If electrons wiz around and bonds flex, then surely a molecule kinda
pulses size wise? |
Nah, the size doesn't remain constant if the temperature is above absolute zero, it's the main why fluid density decreases with temperature - more
energy in the bonds means they traverse a larger distance from their 'rest' point, which means the same mass is contained in a larger effective
volume. Contrary to what we've been told in school, water doesn't actually have a density of 1g/cm^3, that's only at 0-10C - at STP, the density is
0.997, and this decreases further to 0.958 when it comes to a boil. Obviously this doesn't really matter on an amateur scale, but it's one of those
little things which we have measured, and the same phenomenon gives rise to heat waves on roads and other surfaces exposed to direct, intense
sunlight.
[Edited on 17-11-2017 by LearnedAmateur]
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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Dr.Bob
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If you want to see how small water is, try to do truly anhydrous chemistry, where any water will kill the reaction. It is nearly impossible to keep
it out, water gets into almost everything, if you wait a little while. Plus, one mg of water is a huge molar amount, compared to 1 mg of nearly any
common organic chemical.
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