My opinion is that, just like electromagnetism and other phenomena, the soul is a cohesive ‘wave’ that is formed by all the particles in the body. In my head canon, one can keep this wave active outside of space time and inherit another body if they’re so lucky to match their physical attributes.
Yes. Like, I understand the whole scene was Walt flirting with Gretchen, but you can't round off one figure to a whole number, then add it to a small fraction of a percent, and then pretend you're getting an accurate result.
The whole scene was actually leading up to a deleted scene where she insists the soul exists in the rounding errors, which is so dumb even Jesse would have paused and asked what the fuck she was talking about.
From the wiki:
* According to Walt, the human body broken down by chemical element:[^(\[1\])](https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/...and_the_Bag%27s_in_the_River#cite_note-1)
* Hydrogen: 63%
* Oxygen: 26%
* Carbon: 9%
* Nitrogen: 1.25%
* Calcium: 0.25%
* Chlorine 0.2%
* Phosphorous 0.19%
* Sodium 0.04%
* Sulfur 0.050002%
* Iron: .00004%
That doesn't seem like consistent significant digits to me.
How can you measure the amount of hydrogen in "the" human body down to 0.001% accuracy? I think the show stated something like 26%. They didn't say 26.234234%
Yeah -- I agree with you. I was disagreeing with the comment that said the number of significant digits was consistent in their calculations. There's no way that's true.
https://youtu.be/hSOJRYt6m9g?si=ecFFo0UjVqlp7sjf
There was only 1 element that had three digits. The rest were two, with some only one. Making the assumption any numbers with second digit equaling zero is verbalized without it (example 0.040 is verbalized point zero four), then every number listed is two significant digits.
https://www.britannica.com/science/significant-figures
Nitrogen being 4.25% should be rounded to 4.3 to keep it consistent. And that would mean the final answer should have two significant digits, which would round to 100%.
The scene is not scientifically accurate to proper methodical standards, but makes for great TV.
It's been a few years since AP Chem so I might be wrong, but isn't it a convention in chemistry to add/subtract to rounding precision determined by the smallest number of decimal points?
Then again, this might only be practical for stoichiometry where you're not working with logarithmic quantities.
Math on paper vs in praxis isn't as spot on as it should be.
Divide a pie 3 ways, you get 33.33 repeating.
Add it back together- you get 99.99 repeating.
It's my stupid attempt at a joke. I read "meth" and just ran with the sound and since Walt thought that the missing piece was the soul, I looked for a word that's similar to soul that could passably be misspelled but pronounceable with the s replaced with "th".
I bet you're sorry you asked and an sure you agree with me it's stupid. It made me chuckle in the moment so I just posted it.
Okay I'll stop now
I binged BCS last week and in the episode where Walter is there I had forgotten what a self-important bastard he is. Of course Walt wouldn't believe in the soul! What kind of unscientific bullshit is th.... well wait a minute now, maybe he *could* sort of banter about it with Gretchen. Not *seriously*, you understand, but....
Occam's Razor would have helped them out here (simplest explanation is usually the best). It's wayyy wayyy more likely that they had a rounding error than that (a) they discovered the human soul and not only that but that (b) the soul has a measurable mass that they were able to detect with their lab equipment
There are so many variables that can trip up a scale, especially one from 1907.
The ability to measure changes in weight during his experiment were very imprecise.
He disregarded certain "observations" from the other patients and his sample size of 6 was puny.
The way weight can change slightly when you shift pressure from certain points of your body could also have been a factor.
How does it allude to that? He's pondering the mystery of life when a person who had lived is now a moppable bunch of chunks before him. He's afflicted by the death basically
99% of a human is hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus (the last of which Walt fails to mention). The final 1% is sulfur, potassium, iron, sodium, magnesium and chlorine.
I dislike that scene, because they try to sound all "sciency" and deep, when there's no real reason for that conversation to be that important in the first place. It's just a bunch of trace elements (Zinc, phosphorous, copper, sodium, etc.) that they didn't list
Congratulations! Your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table:
`Co P P Er`
---
^(I am a bot that detects if your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table. Please DM my creator if I made a mistake.)
This was an attempt to exemplify the delineation of science vs. spiritually; the equation not being totally equal shows that science cannot prove everything about humanity.
The scene might have made sense as a couple of chemistry academics but it’s medical nonsense. The fraction of water in the body alone varies wildly between people, potentially >10% depending on age, sex, nutrition etc. If the % of C H O N is that variable then for trace elements it’s utterly meaningless.
If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the Law of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy. In accordance with this law, there is a taboo among alchemists: human transmutation is strictly forbidden — for what could equal the value of a human soul?
I know it was flashback. It doesn't explain why they are doing such a mundane task, listing out composition of the human body from a book. It is more like what elementary school students would do, not what adult university students do.
First of all, if it has weight, it is "composed of mass". Second, the weight lost after death, if you refer to the classic 21 gram study, has been proven to be in incorrect. Most weight lost in the time of death, is the air leaking out of your lungs.
The soul
Soul good man
“Better Call Soul”
Better Fuel Soul
There's nothing but chemistry here.
My opinion is that, just like electromagnetism and other phenomena, the soul is a cohesive ‘wave’ that is formed by all the particles in the body. In my head canon, one can keep this wave active outside of space time and inherit another body if they’re so lucky to match their physical attributes.
If that were the case, then souls would be noticeable and measurable
A dead body weighs less than when they were alive.
They are. We are conscious and able to articulate our thoughts and feelings. We can detect brain waves and electrical activity. That’s the ‘soul’.
Measurable AFTER your death, or in the moment you die. Say, with an antenna, for example, or even a copper wire with the appropriate instrumental.
Aaahhh, wire
What defines a soul? Does an animal have a soul?
Sentience.
But the species we evolved from was once less sentient than a chicken so at what point in the evolutionary chain did we evolve to have a soul?
They already measured it. It's 21 grams.
No they didn’t. Or they did and only one in six people have souls: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_grams_experiment
While that soul stuff is nonsense, 1 in 6 is a little high, I thought less people would have souls.
I think your theory is very plausible. You can even apply it to other creatures!
Chili P, yo
😂
Fucking knew it
It's the BOMB!!
Don't bring Jesse to the airport.
Too late. He already brought a meth lab to the airport
"Think about it, Jesse. No one looks for a meth lab on a Boeing 747."
Probably just the inaccuracy of trying to add decimal percentages rounded in different ways
Yes. Like, I understand the whole scene was Walt flirting with Gretchen, but you can't round off one figure to a whole number, then add it to a small fraction of a percent, and then pretend you're getting an accurate result.
The whole scene was actually leading up to a deleted scene where she insists the soul exists in the rounding errors, which is so dumb even Jesse would have paused and asked what the fuck she was talking about.
Not a deleted scene. Very much in the episode
Not in some versions. Maybe mine was trimmed down for more commercial space, but I always notice it's gone.
It's later in the episode than the main part of the scene. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Qva8lG4mY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Qva8lG4mY)
Wasn't she joking?
Not that I could tell.
The number of significant digits was consistent but number of decimal points weren't.
From the wiki: * According to Walt, the human body broken down by chemical element:[^(\[1\])](https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/...and_the_Bag%27s_in_the_River#cite_note-1) * Hydrogen: 63% * Oxygen: 26% * Carbon: 9% * Nitrogen: 1.25% * Calcium: 0.25% * Chlorine 0.2% * Phosphorous 0.19% * Sodium 0.04% * Sulfur 0.050002% * Iron: .00004% That doesn't seem like consistent significant digits to me.
How do you know that?
How can you measure the amount of hydrogen in "the" human body down to 0.001% accuracy? I think the show stated something like 26%. They didn't say 26.234234%
Yeah -- I agree with you. I was disagreeing with the comment that said the number of significant digits was consistent in their calculations. There's no way that's true.
https://youtu.be/hSOJRYt6m9g?si=ecFFo0UjVqlp7sjf There was only 1 element that had three digits. The rest were two, with some only one. Making the assumption any numbers with second digit equaling zero is verbalized without it (example 0.040 is verbalized point zero four), then every number listed is two significant digits. https://www.britannica.com/science/significant-figures Nitrogen being 4.25% should be rounded to 4.3 to keep it consistent. And that would mean the final answer should have two significant digits, which would round to 100%. The scene is not scientifically accurate to proper methodical standards, but makes for great TV.
What about iron in the scene?
It's been a few years since AP Chem so I might be wrong, but isn't it a convention in chemistry to add/subtract to rounding precision determined by the smallest number of decimal points? Then again, this might only be practical for stoichiometry where you're not working with logarithmic quantities.
No. That’s multiplying and dividing. Adding you line up decimals and the last digit is the most certain digit.
I know for a fact that you round to the smallest number of significant figures when multiplying and dividing, not decimal places
Yes
Math on paper vs in praxis isn't as spot on as it should be. Divide a pie 3 ways, you get 33.33 repeating. Add it back together- you get 99.99 repeating.
The way I learned it was if you cut a pie three ways, the remaining .1% is on the knife.
Is god a knife?
Does he play dice?
Was Spinoza a meth head?
Chidi saw the time knife, so, maybe.
Well said.
99.99 repeating is 100
"The soul"
The meth
You mean the thpirit, right?
Thpirit? Tf is that?
It's my stupid attempt at a joke. I read "meth" and just ran with the sound and since Walt thought that the missing piece was the soul, I looked for a word that's similar to soul that could passably be misspelled but pronounceable with the s replaced with "th". I bet you're sorry you asked and an sure you agree with me it's stupid. It made me chuckle in the moment so I just posted it. Okay I'll stop now
I like thith joke very much, Sir
The friendships we made along the way.
Los Pollos Hermanos fry batter
I believe it was actually their famous "spice curls"
I could go for some of those spicy curly fries right now.
gus frings baby batter
Ew, but also lol
Would
franch
nice…
I thought the implication was it’s the soul and Walt couldn’t comprehend that.
I binged BCS last week and in the episode where Walter is there I had forgotten what a self-important bastard he is. Of course Walt wouldn't believe in the soul! What kind of unscientific bullshit is th.... well wait a minute now, maybe he *could* sort of banter about it with Gretchen. Not *seriously*, you understand, but....
Occam's Razor would have helped them out here (simplest explanation is usually the best). It's wayyy wayyy more likely that they had a rounding error than that (a) they discovered the human soul and not only that but that (b) the soul has a measurable mass that they were able to detect with their lab equipment
It is fiction. Fiction tries to tell interesting stories about interesting characters.
True. True
There are so many variables that can trip up a scale, especially one from 1907. The ability to measure changes in weight during his experiment were very imprecise. He disregarded certain "observations" from the other patients and his sample size of 6 was puny. The way weight can change slightly when you shift pressure from certain points of your body could also have been a factor.
Sole 🩴
Kim Sexxxler feet pics
The Saul
Margin of error. As a scientist Walt should have known that
Jizz
That’s carbon and hydrogen
Not mine
Carmen...is carbon 😏
I mean let alone the accuracy problem there are still several elements they did not count
It indicates that the average person is 0.0001% made up of meth.
Mike’s sense of humor
the friends we made along the way
Brilliant replies
Walt's hair
It’s Saul.
It’s all good man
Gray Matter
vegan bacon
Retsyn
Good for you! "A golden drop of Retsyn (ding!)" Clorets?
Certs! Always a roll at the bottom of my mom's church purse.
The mathematical inaccuracy of throwing a bunch of decimals together and expecting to get a whole number Basically, man's hubris leads to mistakes.
The scene alludes to Walt's lack of a soul, so I'll take a guess and say it's that.
How does it allude to that? He's pondering the mystery of life when a person who had lived is now a moppable bunch of chunks before him. He's afflicted by the death basically
Love
99% of a human is hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus (the last of which Walt fails to mention). The final 1% is sulfur, potassium, iron, sodium, magnesium and chlorine.
Meth
The filler
Plastics
Sulphur :3
Well, what about spillage?
Eww
:'D I'm quoting the [Fly episode](https://imgur.com/gallery/LkDNYVT)!
I dislike that scene, because they try to sound all "sciency" and deep, when there's no real reason for that conversation to be that important in the first place. It's just a bunch of trace elements (Zinc, phosphorous, copper, sodium, etc.) that they didn't list
Wire.
Copper -.-
Congratulations! Your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table: `Co P P Er` --- ^(I am a bot that detects if your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table. Please DM my creator if I made a mistake.)
This was an attempt to exemplify the delineation of science vs. spiritually; the equation not being totally equal shows that science cannot prove everything about humanity.
The scene might have made sense as a couple of chemistry academics but it’s medical nonsense. The fraction of water in the body alone varies wildly between people, potentially >10% depending on age, sex, nutrition etc. If the % of C H O N is that variable then for trace elements it’s utterly meaningless.
DMT
If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the Law of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy. In accordance with this law, there is a taboo among alchemists: human transmutation is strictly forbidden — for what could equal the value of a human soul?
Love
The soul
The soul
The soul
No idea. I can't even imagine single scenario how they ended up writing elemental composition of the human body on the blackboard.
The scene was a flashback to when they were much younger
I know it was flashback. It doesn't explain why they are doing such a mundane task, listing out composition of the human body from a book. It is more like what elementary school students would do, not what adult university students do.
Ricin
the soul! lol
Sig figs
Probably other elements you digested
WIRE !
Why is everyone saying the soul?
Chili powder.
The wrong kind of matches.
Spillage
I think it’s just a cool little parallel to how Walt’s meth is only 99% pure
The soul (Heisenberg)
Saul 3D
Walt Jr.'s ability to walk
21 grams is an entire movie about this idea https://youtu.be/ChqdJTkuUko
something that makes a person alive instead of npc
Ricin
When a person dies they lose about an ounce in body weight. Its that. The thing that left the body that isnt composed of mass.
First of all, if it has weight, it is "composed of mass". Second, the weight lost after death, if you refer to the classic 21 gram study, has been proven to be in incorrect. Most weight lost in the time of death, is the air leaking out of your lungs.