STEPHEN RICE <[log in to unmask]> wrote about the water produced from 60 pounds of honey.

Stephen, your calculation based on only the water content of the honey omits the water created as the sugars are metabolized.  Tim's calculation is right.  Here's how I validated his approximation:

1.  60 pounds of honey is approximately 16% water  (9.6 pounds), leaving 50.4 pounds of sugars, etc.
2.  Assume some ash and round down to 50 pounds of sugars.
3.  Honey is about 40% fructose, 30% glucose and 30% maltose, sucrose, etc.
4.  Fructose and glucose are C6H12O6 sugars for a molecular weight of 180.
5.  During metabolism, the carbons are combined with O2 and exhaled.  The twelve hydrogens and 6 oxygens combine to 6 water molecules (also exhaled eventually).
6.  The molecular weight of the 6 water molecules is 108 or 60% of the sugar 's molecular weight.
7.  Maltose and sucrose are C12H22O11 sugars with a molecular weight of 342, producing a water weight of 198 or 57.9% of the sugar weight.
8.  Multiply the 50 pounds of sugars by the sum of the fractions of each sugar times the percent of water produced and you get 29.7 pounds of water created as a result of metabolism.
9.  Add the original 9.6 pounds of water content of the honey and you're at 39.3 pounds of water.



Mike Rossander
 
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