# Water Molecules and Christopher Columbus **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307 "2008-06-09T07:01:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![skydog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@skydog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skydog)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/1 "2008-06-09T07:01:56Z")
I remember something from my childhood that I am trying to confirm. I was told that if Christopher Columbus had dumped a cup of water in the ocean, any cup of water taken from any ocean today would have at least 250 molecules from the original cup of water Columbus dumped. Can this be true?! ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/2 "2008-06-09T08:27:08Z")
The oceans contain about 10[sup]21[/sup] kilograms of water. [[cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrosphere)]. Say a smallish coffee or tea cup (not a larger measuring cup) holds about one-tenth of a kilogram so there are are 10[sup]22[/sup] cups in the ocean. Such a cup would hold 100 grams or water or about 5.5 moles of water because H[sub]2[/sub]O has a molecular weight of about 18 grams/mole. A mole of anything contains about 6x10[sup]23[/sup] units (here molecules) so that makes 3.3x10[sup]24[/sup] molecules of water in his cup. Dividing his cup’s molecules evenly amongs the number of cups in the oceans makes 3.3x10[sup]2[/sup] or 330 molecules per cup. All this assumes there has been negligible amount of chemical breakdown of the water molecules in his cup in the last 500 years. I can’t say whether that’s true. It also assumes that the molecules are evenly distributed around the world’s oceans. I’d guess there hasn’t been enough time to distribute the water to the ocean depths (a very slow process because warm waters at the surface tend not to sink). So there may well be more than 330 of his molecules in each cup taken from near the surface. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/3 "2008-06-09T10:27:34Z")
It is certainly not impossible. The same thing can be said of the water molucules in Christ’s body. Your body shares a certain number of them with mine. The gold in your wedding ring contains some the gold from Alexander’s dental work and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/4 "2008-06-09T13:20:01Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] It is certainly not impossible. The same thing can be said of the water molucules in Christ’s body. Your body shares a certain number of them with mine. The gold in your wedding ring contains some the gold from Alexander’s dental work and so on. [/QUOTE] I’d imagine the gold thing is far less likely to be true. Is there a mechanism that would mix all the world’s gold together like there is naturally for water? ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/5 "2008-06-09T13:46:22Z")
[QUOTE=skydog] I remember something from my childhood that I am trying to confirm. I was told that if Christopher Columbus had dumped a cup of water in the ocean, any cup of water taken from any ocean today would have at least 250 molecules from the original cup of water Columbus dumped. Can this be true?! [/QUOTE] Surely you’re being polite. I was told we’re drinking xx molecules from a pee he arced over the gunwale. Also, Caesar’s last breath: [http://www.hk-phy.org/articles/caesar/caesar\_e.html](http://www.hk-phy.org/articles/caesar/caesar_e.html) ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/6 "2008-06-09T14:07:35Z")
[QUOTE=bibliophage] I’d guess there hasn’t been enough time to distribute the water to the ocean depths (a very slow process because warm waters at the surface tend not to sink). So there may well be more than 330 of his molecules in each cup taken from near the surface. [/QUOTE] Even if large-scale mixing and other mass transport effects weren’t sending surface water down below, molecular diffusion alone would certainly cross any “boundary” between water masses. Add that in with the effects of currents, and other bulk transport phenomena, and I see little reason to believe that the water molecules wouldn’t be evenly distributed throughout the entire volume of the oceans after 500 years. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/7 "2008-06-09T14:28:11Z")
[QUOTE=sunacres] Surely you’re being polite. I was told we’re drinking xx molecules from a pee he arced over the gunwale. [/QUOTE] There we go. I was going to say we’re all drinking the Ghosts of Urine Past (or Passed). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/8 "2008-06-09T14:36:15Z")
Past, hell. You’re drinking my pee right now. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/9 "2008-06-09T14:40:00Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] Past, hell. You’re drinking my pee right now. [/QUOTE] Hmmm - did you by any chance have asparagus for dinner yesterday? ---
**Author:** ![Wiltshire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Wiltshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiltshire)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/10 "2008-06-09T15:21:19Z")
Not so fast. The math seems solid enough - if we were counting atoms instead of molecules. But this particular factoid is oversimplified. Water is in a permanent autodissociation equilibrium. Its molecules constantly recombine, back and forth from neutral water into hydronium ions and hydroxide ions. The equilibrium itself is pretty onesided (10[sup]-14[/sup], the famous pH 7 value), but any one individual molecule isn’t staying whole in this reaction for too long. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ionization\_of\_water](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ionization_of_water): “_a randomly selected water molecule will dissociate within approximately 10 hours_” (Eigen, M. & de Maeyer, L. (1955) Untersuchungen über die Kinetik der Neutralisation I. Z. Elektrochem. 59 986) So it seems pretty unlikely that you’ll get even a single one of the original water molecules in your cup. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/11 "2008-06-09T16:18:27Z")
[QUOTE=Wiltshire] So it seems pretty unlikely that you’ll get even a single one of the original water molecules in your cup. [/QUOTE] I drink your protons. I drink them up. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/12 "2008-06-09T16:36:06Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] I drink your protons. I drink them up. [/QUOTE] You put the urine in the ocean and you drink 'em both up. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/13 "2008-06-09T17:25:36Z")
[QUOTE=Wiltshire] Not so fast. The math seems solid enough - if we were counting atoms instead of molecules. But this particular factoid is oversimplified. Water is in a permanent autodissociation equilibrium. Its molecules constantly recombine, back and forth from neutral water into hydronium ions and hydroxide ions… So it seems pretty unlikely that you’ll get even a single one of the original water molecules in your cup. [/QUOTE] But surely they’d be the same oxygen and hydrogen atoms, just not necessarily linked together in the same order? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/14 "2008-06-09T17:36:12Z")
I guess this takes a little strength out of the expression “eat shit”. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/15 "2008-06-09T17:56:04Z")
Screw atoms, I want to get my hands on some Jesus Quarks. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/16 "2008-06-09T18:05:21Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] Screw atoms, I want to get my hands on some Jesus Quarks. [/QUOTE] Jesus was a meson? ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/17 "2008-06-09T18:20:17Z")
Some of the molecules would also be distributed on land and in the atmosphere as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/18 "2008-06-09T18:37:01Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Jesus was a meson? [/QUOTE] In the name of the father, the meson, and the Holy Quark… ---
**Author:** ![Jonno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f19dbf/32.png) [@Jonno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonno)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/19 "2008-06-09T19:27:56Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] Past, hell. You’re drinking my pee right now. [/QUOTE] By the way, you’re pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Myself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Myself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myself)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307/20 "2008-06-09T20:10:11Z")
Doesn’t evaporation have something to do with water, or other kinds of liquid, molecules? So we’re all made up of star dust mixed with old pee, is that right? Now _that’s_ intelligent design! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-molecules-and-christopher-columbus/452307.md?page=2)