If you’ve got Band-Aids, Neosporin and the rest of the usual cut and scrape healing kit in your medicine cabinet, chances are there’s a bottle of rubbing alcohol in there as well.
Rubbing alcohol, also known as Isopropyl alcohol is widely used in the U.S. for a variety of consumer applications. The vast majority of these applications including the use of rubbing alcohol as solvent, although most know the stuff simply as a disinfectant for medical purposes.
Isopropyl alcohol is also used as a gasoline additive on occasion, as it dries out water, which can cause problems for engines. Similarly, swimmers often drop rubbing alcohol in their ears to dry out excess water that might cause infection.
Isopropyl alcohol is made from a few ingredients, one of which is propene, a byproduct of oil refining. When water is added to propene, the chemical compound changes and Isopropyl alcohol is the result.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these tiny tidbits all month. If you have ideas for future features, please send us a message or comment. Happy Halloweeen.
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