Quirky Little Trivia

[joggerjayne]

There is only one number in the English language that has all its letters in alphabetical order.

The amount of water on the planet is constant, and always has been. So there is no such thing as "fresh" water. And some of the water that we drink will have been drunk by dinosaurs.

[Hopkirk]

Forty?

[bibblebub]

Statistically, every breath that you take will contain a few hundred molecules of oxygen from the dying breath of anyone from history that you care to name. (that's how I remember it from when we did scientific estimates as part of A-level physics)

[joggerjayne]

Hopkirk ... yes!

bibble ... I suppose, logically, that must be right.

[society]

So Bible, are you saying we are breathing recycled oxygen? Or have I misunderstood? Hmmmm

[joggerjayne]

Does oxygen get recycled?

Thinking as I type here.

We breathe in air with about 29% oxygen. We breathe out about 16%. So we "use" about 4%. What happens to it? Is it somehow converted to waste gases like CO2? Can a gas be converted? Or is it just used up in the combustion process, and we produce other waste has as a by product?

Does it somehow find it's way back into the ground and the plants and re-emerge as new oxygen?

But there is still a big percentage of the oxygen in the air that we breathe in and breathe out, without using it or changing it.

I wonder how quickly the molecules mix? Are we all breathing molecules that other ABers were breathing this morning ????

[joggerjayne]

20, not 29 ... typo

[EcclesCake]

A while ago there was an article in the news about aquifers in the Sahara that could provide water for much of the African population. It went on to say that some of this water was 2,000yrs old, it made me wonder about the Best Before Date in bottles of Evian!

[joggerjayne]

I wonder how water can go out of date? Unless it contains impurities.

[Baldric]

Six, that's in abc order isn't it?
so along with 40, that's 2 at least!

[Baldric]

Too much coffee 4get it !!!!!!!

[EcclesCake]

I suspect the label on bottled water is all about bureaucracy rather than necessity!

[joggerjayne]

lol Baldric ... x

[Baldric]

No good JJ, I'm going to have to take more alcohol with it in future!

[naomi24]

As I understand it, in time bottled water becomes polluted from the break-down of the plastic bottle - which is why there's a use by date and why we're advised not to re-use the bottles. I might be wrong - but that's what I understand.

[joggerjayne]

Naomi ... that actually sounds like it could be right.