math teachers

[sassy34264]

Hi.

Just want some math advice on a silly argument me and do just had. He has gone to bed in a huff and I'm left with his `you are thick ringing in my ears!

Basically arguing over an bottle of spirits!
He argues that as its 40% alcohol, therefore 5cl would have 2cls of pure alcohol.

Whilst I agreed in theory and on paper this would be true, at no point could you extract 2 CLS from the said 5cls to make pure alcohol unless you used some form of method to abstract it. Therefore, any 2cl poured forward or backward from a glass would still only have 40% alcohol not 100 in that 2cl.

I admitted that his way works theoretically, but practically it`s not possibly.

Am I wrong?

You are correct, I think.

I don't understand the argument. Who mentioned extracting the alcohol?

It's not maths - it's chemistry ! Yes 5cl has 2cl of pure alcohol in it - but it is not in a separate layer - it is a mixture with the water and other stuff in there. Any 2cl taken out of the first 5cl would have the same proportion of alcohol as the original. The only way to get the pure alcohol out would be to distil it (probably - have forgotten enough chemistry to know if there are other relevant separation techniques). I guess freezing it might work too.

He's answering maths problem; you're pointing out there is a chemistry one too.

He is correct: there is a definite amount of pure alcohol in that bottle.

You are correct: that alcohol is miscible with the other ingredients and cannot be separated without a process.

Before I read the op, can I just ask, are you American?