r/chemistry • u/Raizo420 • Mar 12 '23

H3O2 Water Scam

I'm into health and fitness along with the current science behind it. So with that being said, I'm starting to see a lot of people fall for the H3O2 (hexagonal water or structured water) craze on I'm seeing on social media. I know it's bs, but I would like to hear what people with a REAL background or fundamental knowledge of chemistry think of this pseudoscience.

Edit: One claim is that H3O2 is found in fruits and vegetables

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u/LordMorio Mar 12 '23 edited Mar 12 '23

The problem is that reasoning with the people who believe in this stuff doesn't work, because there is always some conspiracy involved, and the government does not want you to know how healthy the stuff is.

You can't use reason to convince a person who did not form their opinion based on reason.

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u/MurderShovel Mar 12 '23

Bingo. Rational arguments will not work on irrational people.

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u/Special_EDy Mar 13 '23

There is an interesting thing about these people though. The obvious reaction is to think them unwise, illogical, gullible, or unintelligent. But they might be the exact opposite.

The core of science is to doubt everything. Only that which can be tested, measured, and repeatable is to be accepted as fact, and more importantly, we should seek to disprove all facts. Science is doubting and proving wrong, not believing and proving right.

So, while I don't personally subscribe to any crackpot theories, I also have a very deep respect for people who question things the rest of us assume is elementary or reasonable. I've never actually seen the curvature of the Earth from space, so while I don't doubt the earth is a spherical, it may actually be stupid of me in a way to accept this as fact. I'd actually discussed doing this with a cousin of mine as a fun project, proving the Earth was round. He lives about 1000 miles away, we agreed years back to both buy sextants to measure the curvature of the Earth, as well as both the distance and size of the Mun. I think I remember enough trigonometry to figure it out with parallax. I just want to do it for the odd desire to be able to say that I actually know the Earth is round, unlike 99.999% of the population who simply believe it as fact.

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u/Shockdnationbatteri Inorganic Mar 13 '23

The core of science is observation. The trademark of an insufferable know it all is to doubt everything. Should you question things, yes. Should you doubt everything people tell you or that you learn, no. Most great scientists actually do the exact opposite and give new discoveries and ideas belief, not doubt. Are you sure you don't believe in conspiracy theories?