Dear Friends! An amazing calculation. It is possible that some people already know this. Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March, 44 B.C. Let us assume for the sake of simplicity that his last breath before his death was 1 liter. The number of molecules at sea level is about 2.55 x 10 to the power of 22 per litre (Wikipedia). The air volume of the earth corresponds to the earth's surface x height of the air column above sea level: earth's surface = 510 million square kilometers (Wikipedia). Let's assume the height of the air column is 5km. Above that the air is so thin that it doesn't matter to us anymore. This brings us to a total air volume of 510 million square kilometres x 5km = 2.55 x 10 to the power of 9 cubic kilometres = 2.55 x 10 to the power of 21 litres. Caesar's breath of 1 liter makes up 1 part of it. Let us further assume that the molecules of Caesar's last breath were evenly distributed in this volume of air during the 2063 years after his death. If we breathe in 1 liter of air today, then 1 in 2.55 x 10 to the power of 21 parts are from Caesar's last breath. Converted to molecules: 2.55 x 10 to the power of 22 molecules / 2.55 x 10 to the power of 21 = 10 molecules. In other words: Each of us inhales by every breath about 10 molecules of Caesar's last breath! Of course, the same applies to other people in history. I do not want to go into details! Best regards
I have witten: Of course, the same applies to other people in history. I do not want to go into details! Jochen
Of course. But homeopathic dilution too....on the “C scale”, 4C means that you put one drop of the ingredients in a pool ; 7C in a little lake ; 12C in all the water on the earth; 30C the whole galaxy full of water; 50C the entire universe. But from 12C, the probability that 1 molecule of the starting ingredient remains becomes zero...
Ocat, perhaps you will find this comedy sketch as funny as I did (the funniest thing I've ever seen on YouTube... a brilliant lampoon of quackery ):
@Jochen1, thanks for sharing. A smile for end of the week. Breathing in air from that many dead people can't be good for us. There is a book that I haven't read from Sam Keane - not sure if this is the original source of the math, "The Guardian's Best Science Book of 2017".
I read the book, "Caesar's last breath" that Wikipedia got this data from already. But not enough history and to much theorizing. Barely finished the darn thing and wouldn't recommend it.
