All the COVID-19 virus particles that spread death and misery around the world would fit in a single Coke can, according to a British mathematician.
Bath University expert Kit Yates has calculated that there are approximately 2 billion (or 2 billion billion) of SARS-CoV-2 particles worldwide, Sky News reports.
But because of their small size, you would all make a few mouthfuls, you would round them all off.
“It’s amazing to think that all the problems, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that have resulted over the past year can only be a few mouthfuls,” Yates said.
Yates described his infinitesimal calculations and said he used the diameter of the viral particles – averaging about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter – and determined the volume of the spherical virus.
Even though he says the counting peak proteins and the fact that the particles will leave gaps when stacked together, the total is still less than in a single Coke can of 330 milliliters, he said.
“When I was asked to calculate the total volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world for the BBC Radio 4 show ‘More or less’, I will admit that I have no idea what the answer would be,” Yates said. written in The Conversation. .
‘My wife suggested that the size of an Olympic pool should be. “Or a teaspoon,” she said. “It’s usually someone with these kinds of questions,” he added.
More than 2.35 million people have died so far from COVID-19 and according to Johns Hopkins University, more than 107 million cases have been confirmed worldwide.
In the US, the death toll is nearly 472,000 and there are about 27.3 million confirmed cases.