• Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • Anamana@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • meeeeetch@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah that would work to with the “technically”.

            “Alcohol is not a solution, but liquor technically is.”

          • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

            • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              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”).

          • BluesF@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            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.