Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 March 28

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March 28

A woman that gives birth to a girl will bleed more. True or myth?

I've heard that a woman that gives birth to a girl will bleed more. Is that true or myth? ThePupil (talk) 00:38, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

What is your source for this? --OuroborosCobra (talk) 01:41, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

It seems to be "I've heard", not always a reliable one. HiLo48 (talk) 02:07, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Myth. MarnetteD|Talk 02:30, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Google "average birth weights" and it will tell you that the average newborn boy is 7 pounds 6 ounces, and the average newborn girl is 7 pounds 2 ounces. So, if anything, giving birth to a boy should cause more bleeding, on average. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:38, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

See also our article Old wives' tale. Alansplodge (talk) 12:25, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Is there any digestible beverage, that contains neither water nor fat - in terms of chemical composition?

"digestible", i.e. not: gasoline, mercury, and the like.

"beverage", i.e. not: sugar, salt, and the like.

"that contains neither water nor fat, in terms of chemical composition," i.e. not: wine, milk, and the like.

147.236.144.145 (talk) 17:52, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Not that I can think of. All consumables are water and/or oil (fat) based. --Jayron32 18:46, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Glycerol? Beverage status: dubious. Liquid, certainly.  Card Zero  (talk) 19:17, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Pure alcohol? :) Ruslik_Zero 19:48, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

I know there is a :) after the answer, but to note, 190 proof (usually considered "pure" alcohol) has water in it. Alcohol cannot be pure because it self-ionizes, which creates water. I'm sure there is a more proper term for the process in which alcohol breaks itself down. I am using terminology from "Making Pure Corn Whiskey" by Ian Smiley. But, technically, if you have one alcohol molecule trapped in a perfect vacuum, you'd have 100% alcohol. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 19:56, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

It absorbs humidity from the air. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:07, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

SMW has it correct here, "pure" alcohol is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from its surroundings, which would include the air, and would also include you if you consumed it. It is not terribly "digestible", as its hydroscopic nature can make it harmful even beyond what alcohol normally does to a person. Not really drinkable. --Jayron32 11:06, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Oh, also, to note something here: ethanol and water form an azeotrope. This means it is impossible to fully separate them by simple distillation. Obtaining absolute ethanol, 100% pure ethanol, requires various more complicated methods. And then as noted you have to protect it from air to avoid it absorbing water from the air. --47.147.118.55 (talk) 07:59, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

To pair with your fresh rainwater? --47.147.118.55 (talk) 07:38, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

Cod liver oil? Digestible, definitely and you can drink it if you want, so maybe a beverage, but I'm not sure whether the restriction on fat applies to fatty acids. Mikenorton (talk) 21:53, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Oils would count as liquified fats. Some other free fatty acids are digestible, and the short chain ones are liquid. But their smell or acidity may make them too unpleasant to drink. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:14, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Oils are just fats that have a low melting point. They are chemically of the lipid class. --Jayron32 11:06, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Sugar can be melted into a liquid (caramel), though its melting point is high enough to cause severe burns in any significant quantities. There are room temperature liquid sugars (syrups) but they do contain water; I don't know if water could be removed completely from them while keeping them liquid. Gelatin and agar can exist as liquids below human body temperature. Assuming you don't mean a practical beverage. 85.76.101.114 (talk) 11:50, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Removing the water from syrup makes candy, which is decidedly, not a liquid. --Jayron32 12:13, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

—Ogden Nash   (Sorry, couldn't resist) --2603:6081:1C00:1187:F4A4:9C4C:9ABF:9F24 (talk) 15:53, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

How about liquid paraffin (drug)? It is a liquid, it can be taken orally as a laxative, and it doesn't seem to contain water or lipids. --Amble (talk) 16:26, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

It is not digestible. Ruslik_Zero 20:30, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

OP defined "digestible" as "not gasoline, mercury, and the like". Based on this, I interpret the requirement to be just that the "beverage" can be safely consumed by humans. If it has to be really digested, i.e. taken up and metabolized in some fashion, perhaps a suspension of confectioner's sugar in the same liquid paraffin? Yum. Or mix in some vitamin A and hope some of it gets absorbed? --Amble (talk) 21:25, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Naming some drinkable and metabolizable liquid fatty acids: Undecylic acid, Capric acid, Palmitoleic acid, Linoleic acid, gamma-Linolenic acid, Arachidonic acid and Eicosapentaenoic acid (this last one is compulsory). Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:21, 30 March 2022 (UTC)