All the particles of the COVID-19 virus that spread death and misery around the world would fit in a single can of Coca-Cola, according to a British mathematician.
Bath University number analysis specialist Kit Yates found that there are about 2 quintillion – or 2 billion billion – SARS-CoV-2 particles in the world at any one time, Sky News reported.
But, because of their tiny size, if you round them all up, it would only give “a few bites”.
“It is surprising to think that all the problems, the interruptions, the difficulties and the loss of life that resulted in the past year could constitute only a few pieces,” said Yates.
Describing his infinitesimal calculations, Yates said he used the diameter of the viral particles – an average of about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter – and found the volume of the spherical virus.
Even taking into account the telltale peak proteins and the fact that the particles will leave gaps when stacked, the total is still less than in a single 330-milliliter can of Coca, he said.
“When asked to calculate the total volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world for BBC Radio 4’s ‘More or Less’ program, I admit that I had no idea what the answer would be,” wrote Yates in The Conversation.
“My wife suggested that it would be the size of an Olympic swimming pool. “That or a teaspoon,” she said. ‘It’s usually one or the other with that kind of question, ”he added.
More than 2.35 million people have died of COVID-19 so far, and there have been more than 107 million confirmed cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In the United States, the death toll is almost 472,000 and there are about 27.3 million confirmed cases.