this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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But, it’s not. Alcohol is not a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances, nor a substance dissolved into another.
It’s its own chemical category of one or more hydroxyl groups bound to a saturated carbon atom.
It is a solvent but not a solution
Exactly. If you’re gonna make a chemistry joke, at least get it right.
Something like “Alcohol isn’t a solution, but it can be a solvent for the right problem” would be clever and true.
Hm.. In german there's not even a big difference between the words. One is 'Lösungsmittel' the other one is 'Lösung'. So I think for us it works fine either way.
okay but 'alcohol' in its original meaning (alcoholic drink) is, right?
No, because the alcohol in a drink (ethanol) is still not a solution.
That’s not the original meaning either. The original meaning came from Arabic for a stibnite distillation used as eye liner. It came from Al-kuhl. It’s the same way that “spirit” came to mean a hard liquor. Distilling something down to its purest form was meant to harness the “spirit” of the thing.
A given spirit is a solution of alcohol and water, but alcohol itself is not. Which makes the whole “technically” part of the joke fall flat.
Liquor is a solution.
Finally fixed.
Wine and beer probably are too, but I feel like there's an off chance that some varieties of beers (saisons come to mind) could be suspensions.
Yeah that would work to with the “technically”.
“Alcohol is not a solution, but liquor technically is.”
100 % pure alcohol or Ethanol does not exist. It is always a mixture, specifically a solution, with water.
Ethanol can exist in pure form. It absorbs water as soon as it comes into contact with it, but 100% (or as close to 100% as any chemical) Ethanol is possible when stored correctly.
Ethanol sure. There are hundreds of kinds of alcohols.
Cholesterol is an alcohol. Sorbitol is an alcohol. Ethylene glycol is an alcohol. Propylene glycol is an alcohol.
As well as e.g. sugars. I know. Thus, commonly the term alcohol referrs to either Ethanol ("alcohol") or the whole group of substances ("an alcohol", "alcohols").