99.44% pure

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ron, I have heard the peck of dirt saying as well.

  Also, Ivory soap was manufactured for many, many years before there was the remotest possibility of its being even .56% contaminated by a dangerously radioactive substance.
  Drool maybe.

  JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: 99.44% pure
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>=20
>=20
Hmmmmm, the math would seem to be pretty simple. If you have 100 pounds of=20
ivory soap and it contains .56% impurity, that would amount to 100 x .0056,=20=
or=20
.56 pounds or 4.48 ounces. In an 8-ounce bar of soap, tht would amount to .0=
224=20
ounces. So the "once molecule for a vbar of soap the size of the distance=20
between the sun and Jupiter seems to be seriously in error. I'm not sure w=
hat=20
math Paige was using--maybe Paige can elaborate?

Of course the claims are puffery, even so. And if you think about it, who=20
wants .0224 ounces of impurtity in her hand soap? What if it is a highly tox=
ic=20
radioactive substance? Drool from the soap-maker's lips? Dead skin from the=20
soapmaker's unwashed hand? Roach droppings? Mascara? An eyelash? And is each=
vbar=20
of soap 99.44% puire, or is that just every ton of soap that comes out of th=
e=20
factory? If each ton contains one dead mouse chpped up and pureed and=20
distributed in the first 500 bars, and the remaining bars are correspondingl=
y "pure"=20
(enough to make the average come out at 99.44% for the whole ton) does that=20
count?

One of my mother's sayings was, "Well, they say we all eat a peck of dirt in=
=20
our lives." Did she make this up, or have others heard it as well?


>=20
> "hpst at earthlink.net" wrote:
> =A0 ---------------------- Information from the mail header=20
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "hpst at earthlink.net"
> Subject: Re: 99.44% pure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---
> --
>=20
> Allison,
>=20
> My friend James "The Amazing" Randi once asked a chemist about the claim o=
n
> a homeopathic remedy what x% pure meant.
>=20
> His friend replied that it meant that if you had a ball of pure water whic=
h
> extended from the sun to as I recall the orbit of Jupiter only one molecul=
e
> of any other substance could exist.
>=20
> I've done some of the math on this, and Randi's friend was totally correct=
.
>=20
> Bullshit is bullshit and if you look at the labels on some homeopathic
> remedies their claims are physically impossible.
>=20
> Page Stephens
>=20
>=20

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