[2013-04-11] Everything is chemicals!
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:03 am
Proudly ignored since 1867
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Perhaps only alters inorganic brain? TREE ASMIOFANIAN LAWS! HA HAHA HAHAHA HAHAHAHA!Michele-Michel wrote:I thought the whole point of beer was that it chemically alters your brain.
Hey, tap water is purified and prepared. Just cause it's a compound and not an element doesn't disqualify it from chemical substance. Also the process of yeast extruding ethanol is a chemical reaction that creates a chemical substance. Just because humans aren't directly adding it in doesn't disqualify it from being purified and prepared. Possibly the only thing that might be considered non-artificial here is the grain and even that has been genetically engineered up the wazoo and is really more of a freak mutant designed for human purposes over a few hundred years than anything like "natural" hops.Kaharz wrote:A 'chemical substance' generally means a pure chemical compound with a definite composition. If you are being technical, that is the technical definition. It has also come to be used commonly as something that is artificially produced, since most pure substances require some kind of processing to create or extract. Saying a product was made with 'no chemicals' is not all that far off unless they used purified additives of some sort.
So if the beer was just made with grains, yeast, and tap water, it doesn't really contain any chemical substances. None of those things are pure substances with definite compositions. Of course, they are using it as a marketing ploy and playing on the natural fallacy. Which is wrong. But they probably aren't actually using the term 'chemical' wrong even if they are exploiting people's generally misguided belief that artificially created compounds are bad and natural things are good.
Tap water is actually a mixture, mostly in the form of a solution. That is what disqualifies it as a chemical substance, not the fact that is not an element. If it was completely pure water, then yes, it would be a chemical substance. Pure compounds are chemical substances because they have a constant chemical composition. The chemical substance 'water' is always H2O. However, tap water is H2O mixed with a varying amount of other chemical substances and a few other things as well. Since the composition of that mixture is not fixed, it is not a chemical compound by the technical definition. I know this all rather nit-picky, but since everyone was being all "hur hur, everything is chemicals dumbass" about the no chemicals added, I felt I'd be all "hur hur, not if you want to use the technical definition." Yes, advertising as 'no chemicals added' and 'all natural' is still asinine, but can be technically correct. Which is part of the problem. If a lot more people understood this stuff, then they might not be as impressed by such weak marketing ploys. Saying something is 'all natural' is basically saying, "We know mostly what is in here, but we aren't exactly sure in what amounts and there is probably some shit* mixed in that we don't know about at all."jake wrote:Hey, tap water is purified and prepared. Just cause it's a compound and not an element doesn't disqualify it from chemical substance.
I believe I said almost exactly that in the second half of my last sentence.What it's really exploiting is people's weird and arbitrary notions of artificiality.
I don't understand? Just because something is not a chemical substance doesn't mean it isn't made out of chemicals.Tap water is actually a mixture, mostly in the form of a solution. That is what disqualifies it as a chemical substance, not the fact that is not an element. If it was completely pure water, then yes, it would be a chemical substance. Pure compounds are chemical substances because they have a constant chemical composition.
Alx3m wrote:I don't understand? Just because something is not a chemical substance doesn't mean it isn't made out of chemicals.Tap water is actually a mixture, mostly in the form of a solution. That is what disqualifies it as a chemical substance, not the fact that is not an element. If it was completely pure water, then yes, it would be a chemical substance. Pure compounds are chemical substances because they have a constant chemical composition.
A fair number of "No Chemicals Added!" products (products that are attempting to exploit the naturalistic fallacy) claim to use evaporated, and therefore "purer", water. While not strictly speaking only water, water that has been evaporated and then condensed is close enough to "pure" that by your cherry-picked - though not technically incorrect - definition of the word "chemical" it could be considered a chemical.Kaharz wrote:Tap water is actually a mixture, mostly in the form of a solution. That is what disqualifies it as a chemical substance, not the fact that is not an element. If it was completely pure water, then yes, it would be a chemical substance.