something I've always wondered.

Are molecules a collection of atoms that make up their structure.. or are they made up of stuff bigger than atoms?

Could you see one with a high powered microscope?... if not, then how do we know what they look like?

... and finally. "is a salt the smallest thing in the world?" Ali G.

Yes, molecules are made of atoms, nothing else. The next thing bigger than atoms is molecules. Molecules often combine with other molecules to make more complex molecules.

Molecules cannot be seen with high-powered microscopes. With an electron microscope you can "see" big molecular complexes like proteins and DNA but nothing as small as dmt.

However, using X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) one can actually "see" the molecules in pretty damn good resolution (which often is as low as 1 Angstrom or 0.1 nanometers, which is similar to an atom's radius).

amazing! Cheers for that infundibulum.

So these chemicals are mind bogglingly tiny, but feel like massive explosions in the brain. I think thats a wonder in itself.

I take it theres literally billions of single molecules in even the smallest of doses.

Is there a good source of information a beginner like myself could mull over and read up on? Like how molecules are formed and such, maybe something to help me understand more about the science side of all this.

An introductory chemistry text should answer lots of your questions.

There are lots more molecules of DMT in a dose than you might think. In another post somewhere, I calculated it (yes, it can be calculated):

1 mole DMT => 188.27 g/mol = 188270 mg/mol

1 mg DMT => 1 mg/188270 mg/mol = 5.311 x 10^-6 mol

Avogadro's Number = 6.022 x 10^23 molecules/mol

(6.022 x 10^23 molecules/mol) x (5.311 x 10^-6 mol)

1 mg DMT = 3.2 x 10^18 molecules

That's 3,200,000,000,000,000,000 (3.2 quintillion) molecules of DMT per milligram!

Shit gibran, my yield never exceeds 3,100,000,000,000,000,000 molecules/mg. What am I doing wrong?



JBArk

sorry but.. Fuck me!!! thats a frightning number gibran, whats more scary is the fact that we must have even more receptors for it... just WOW mate! Thanks for that bit of information. If i could have worded it better, then this was prolly the shocking fact i was looking for... and when I seen all that clever calculation i thought shit i'll never understand all that, still dont really, but a quintillion? shit!

thanks fellows

Adjust your value for Avogadro's constant properly and all shall be well. Lay off the spice when doing this (otherwise this problem reduces down to 2+2 = potato).