The Universe in a Teaspoon

There are 1.648×10^23 molecules in 1 tsp (4.929 ml) of water. There are three atoms in a single molecule of water, meaning there are a staggering 4.943×10^23 atoms within a single teaspoon of water.

This means there are more atoms held in that teaspoon than there are stars in the universe (3×10^23 stars, according to research published in 2010 by Pieter G. van Dokkum and Charlie Conroy).

The volume of the Pacific Ocean, according to the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center in 2010, is 1.339×10^23 tsp, which is significantly less than the number of atoms in a single teaspoon of water.

I’m amazed that within something as seemingly insignificant as a teaspoon of water, there might as well be an infinity of atoms. Those atoms can themselves be broken down into subatomic particles which can be broken down still into tinier objects still, such as gluons.

The mind boggles.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Use your Gravatar-enabled email address while commenting to automatically enhance your comment with some of Gravatar's open profile data.

Comments must be made in accordance with the comment policy. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam; learn how your comment data is processed.

You may use Markdown to format your comments; additionally, these HTML tags and attributes may be used: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

the Rick Beckman archive
Scroll to Top