COVID-19 Particles Throughout the World Could Fit Inside One Coke Can

By Joshua Summers First Posted: Feb 15, 2021 09:38 PM EST

Mathematician: COVID-19 Particles Throughout the World Could Approximately Fit Inside One Coke Can

(Photo : Scott Olson)
Cans of Sprite, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola are offered for sale at a grocery store on April 17, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.

It's almost a year since SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads throughout the world and putting us into the global pandemic. With the continuous surge of patients contracting the virus, have you ever wondered how much COVID-19 particles are present throughout the world? Will it surprise you if all those particles can fit in one coke can?

A Mathematician shared this piece of information that surprised the people. As of February 15, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded about 108,579352 positive cases of COVID-19 and 2,396,408 deaths due to the notorious.

COVID-19 particles

Deseret News reports that a mathematician from Bath University, Christian Yates shared this piece of astonishing information about the connection of COVID-19 particles and the Coke can. Yates notes that there are about two quintillion COVID-19 particles globally, but because of their smalls size, they can only make up a few mouthfuls.

SKY News Shares that Mr. Yates shares that only a small amount could establish the trouble, disruption, hardship, and loss over the last year and up to the present in an interview.

Yates also shares in The Conversation that when he was asked in BBC Radio 4, a show entitled More or Less, he admitted that he has no idea how to answer. He also emphasized that the data he shared is an approximation based on the most reasonable assumptions, yet it can still be improved.

How did it Fit in the Coke Can?

Sky News reports that Mr. yates utilized the diameters of SARS-CoV-2 at an average of about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter, then figured out the spherical virus's volume. But before that, Mr. yates shares in The Conversation that they should find out how many people contract the virus.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation used the statistical and epidemiological modeling that made them land on an estimation of Three million people gets infected every day.

Because of the size of SARS-CoV-2, Dr. yates compared the virus to the stacks of oranges in the supermarket where there are empty spaces. The best way to minimize this is by the method called close sphere packing. This method will increase the volume of the SARS-CoV-2 particles to about 160 ml, which will fit six shot glasses, an amount that will still not fill the Coke can.

Takeaway

With this discovery, even if the data is approximate, this can still be a model of how much virus steers the world into chaos and bring so much grief upon the people.

With the small size of COVID-19 particles that could fit inside the Coke can, we may see this positively to easily defeat the virus. But just like Mr. Yates said, it is still saddening that a small amount of the virus throughout the world cause so much chaos and disruptions.