Waiting to exhale

[Almighty Colin]

The souls thread reminded me of this for some reason.

Using some ballpark numbers. One breath contains about a liter of air. A liter contains roughly 2*10^22 molecules. That’s 20000000000000000000000 molecules per breath. Earth’s atmosphere contains about 10^44 molecules.
(1 followed by 44 zeros).

So say Vick exhales. We let some time go by until those molecules from that one breath are thoroughly mixed in the atmosphere. You can show using those numbers that there is about a 98% chance you will inhale at least one of his molecules from that one breath in your next breath.

I hope he used a breathmint.

[sarettah]

Originally posted by Colin@May 19 2004, 07:01 AM
The souls thread reminded me of this for some reason.

Using some ballpark numbers. One breath contains about a liter of air. A liter contains roughly 2*10^22 molecules. That’s 20000000000000000000000 molecules per breath. Earth’s atmosphere contains about 10^44 molecules.
(1 followed by 44 zeros).

So say Vick exhales. We let some time go by until those molecules from that one breath are thoroughly mixed in the atmosphere. You can show using those numbers that there is about a 98% chance you will inhale at least one of his molecules from that one breath in your next breath.

I hope he used a breathmint.

and since hot air rises, you have a higher chance if you are tall....

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by sarettah+May 19 2004, 07:05 AM-->