Single 'soda can' big enough to hold every Covid-19 particle in world: British mathematician

Covid-19 has cast a shadow over our lives for over a year now, it has changed the world by infecting over 107 million people and resulting in 2.3 million fatalities.

The shape of the virus is very well-known around the world now. But what's the actual size of the virus? According to a British mathematician, you can fit all the COVID-19 viruses in the world into a can of Coca-Cola.

Kit Yates, a maths expert from Bath University, has researched on how much physical space all the virus particles currently circulating the world over would take up if they were put together into one closed space.

Detailing the steps in his calculations, Yates said he used the diameter of SARS-CoV-2 - at an average of about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter - and then figured out the volume of the spherical virus.

Even accounting for the coronavirus’ projecting spike proteins and the fact that the spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked together, the total is still less than in a single 330 millilitre (ml) cola can, he said.

“It’s astonishing to think that all the trouble, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that has resulted over the last year could constitute just a few mouthfuls,” Yates said in a statement.

More than 2.34 million people have died in the COVID-19 pandemic so far, and there have been almost 107 million confirmed cases worldwide.

(With inputs from agencies)