OT: Acres of bacteria

[Clinton MacDonald]

Bill and Norberto:

Norberto Quintanar wrote:
>>> Clint thus spoke:
>>>> memory "card" of such a size, if made entirely of hydrogen 
>>>> atoms, would weigh about 567 million metric tons (again,
>>>> if I have done the math right).
>>>>
>>>How much would it weigh if it were made of holes?

Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall! ;-)

>>Enter units, my *favorite* utility:
>>
>>Assuming 1 bacteria = ~1 micron^2 then,
>> [...]
>>
>>
>>Clint, here's what I just got, assuming H is 1 amu:
>>You have: 2^128 amu
>>You want: tons
>>        * 6.2286327e+08
>>        / 1.6054888e-09

Very cool. I will have to learn more about "units."

My assumption was that one Mole of hydrogen contained Avogadro's number 
of atoms (6.02 x 10^23) and weighed one gram. Highly oversimplified, and 
quite possibly wrong.

> Regardless, all that bacteria would smell.

If it were yeast, they would smell like beer or rising bread. Not as 
objectionable. And if they were actinomycetes, they would smell like 
newly fallen rain on a forest floor.

Of course, if they were Escherichia coli, they would smell like poop.

> On the flip side, if you
> bought a "roomfull" of bacteria, assuming optimal growing conditions,
> in no time you'd have two rooms of bacteria, then a little later
> you'd have three rooms.

Well, you would have *four* rooms... then *eight* rooms, and so on. Kind 
of like the binary memory chips with which we started this thread. ;-)

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>