Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Jimbee on 15/05/2025 19:17:27
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I was actually thinking of the scoville scale of heat for hot peppers when I asked this question. It goes from 100 to 100,000, or mild to very hot. It says online that it was developed in 1912 by determining the amount of dilution required for the heat of a pepper to no longer be detectable by a panel of trained taste testers. That sounds very subjective to me. Especially if they are talking about something like taste. Is there a simple formula the scoville scale can be written as?
Because I know my HS teached used to tell us everything has a formula. Even how the raisins fall in a box of raisin bran. If anyone in the room asked, he say here I'll show you. And he'd write a long equation on the board. So can scoville be written as a formula? Or how would science define it? And as I said above, the same with sharpness and hardness. I've heard that the sharpest object would be one where the blade the thickness of one atom. And they say that diamonds are the hardest known object.
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Moh's Scale rates hardness of materials in terms of their relative resistance to scratching. It's empirical rather than a formula but is definitely useful.
Whilst a single atom edge would appear sharpest in theory, a lot depends on the size and binding of the atoms. A knife made of hydrogen wouldn't be much use above the melting point of hydrogen, and the binding energy of silicon carbide suggests it might be a more practical knife than pure diamond.
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I use a zirconia knife in the kitchen, it is incredibly sharp. The rest of my family are afraid of it and don't use it!