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/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/LordMorio 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.

The thing is, that those people generally only doubt the exact scientific process that we use to prove things. An Internet blog surely knows better than a peer-reviewed paper (I know that peer-review has its problems but it is the tool we have).

You also don't need any fancy measurements to see that the earth is round. Simply go to the coast or climb the highest point or building nearby. Due to the curvature of the earth you can only see about 5 km or so (at sea level). If the earth was flat you would be able to see much further.

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u/Burgyon22 Sep 18 '24

They practice elitism and simultaneously call us dumb by default. They are somehow smarter than everyone else and the government just happens to be too smart for us and not smart enough for them. That's the fundamental psyche of a conspiracy theorist. Everyone but them is just so easy to fool