dilution calculator improvement
Posted: Mon May 21, 2018 5:28 am
Heya,
i just realized that the dilution calculators on the parent site (both the old one and Rad's new one) don't account for volume contraction that happens when mixing water and alcohol. Sure enough we could come up with a calculator that factors that in, right?
You might think that it's only a tiny error that results from neglecting volume contraction, but say (as a far fetched example, granted) you were to take half a liter of 100% water, and half a liter of 100% ethanol, and mixed them together. You would assume (and be told by the calculators) that you'd get one liter of 50% ABV. But that's not true, you'd only get 0.97 liters of liquid, which means ABV is not 500mL/1000mL=50%, but rather 500mL/970mL=51.55%. So the calculation would be off by 1.5.
If we provide a calculator, why not have it as correct as possible?
i just realized that the dilution calculators on the parent site (both the old one and Rad's new one) don't account for volume contraction that happens when mixing water and alcohol. Sure enough we could come up with a calculator that factors that in, right?
You might think that it's only a tiny error that results from neglecting volume contraction, but say (as a far fetched example, granted) you were to take half a liter of 100% water, and half a liter of 100% ethanol, and mixed them together. You would assume (and be told by the calculators) that you'd get one liter of 50% ABV. But that's not true, you'd only get 0.97 liters of liquid, which means ABV is not 500mL/1000mL=50%, but rather 500mL/970mL=51.55%. So the calculation would be off by 1.5.
If we provide a calculator, why not have it as correct as possible?