New Delhi: All the COVID-19-causing virus circulating in the world right now could easily fit inside a single cola can, according to a calculation by a British mathematician whose sum exposes how much devastation is caused by minuscule viral particles, News18 reported quoting Reuters.
Bath University maths expert Kit Yates worked out there are around two quintillion – or two billion billion – SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world at any one time. He used global rates of new infections with the pandemic disease, coupled with estimations of viral load for the purpose.
Detailing the steps in his calculations, Yates was quoted as saying by Reuters that he used the diameter of SARS-CoV-2 – at an average of about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter and then figured out the volume of the spherical virus.
Even accounting for the coronavirus’ projecting spike proteins and the fact that the spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked together, the total is still less than in a single 330 millilitre (ml) cola can, he said.
“It’s astonishing to think that all the trouble, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that has resulted over the last year could constitute just a few mouthfuls,” Yates is quoted to have said in a statement.
