The memory of water... a side comment
FHeasley at Chemistry.com
Thu Sep 5 14:12:02 EST 1996
daniel alexander wrote:
> A friend of mine saw a documentary on this and asked me to find out
> something about it...I was rudely sceptical, but does anyone know
> where I can find something to put his mind at rest? Cheers
> Reply to alexandd at vax.sbu.ac.uk
Consider the following:
A mole of water, 18 grams, contains Avogadro's number of molecules: 6.02
x 10^23. Thus, in a glass of water, around 250 ml, you have more
molecules than all of the oceans and the polar caps combined have
glasses of water.
Now consider that the average human weighs approximately 75kg, and is
around 90% water. Clearly, the number of molecules of water in one
human is also larger than the number of cups of water in the earth's
Thus, in a single glass of water, if you could sort them out and label
them, you would find at least one molecule of water that once occupied
the body of every human that ever lived.
I doubt that water remembers where it's been, but it's something to
Frank Heasley, Ph.D.
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