whats the difference between rubbing alcohol and drinking alcohol?

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Read-Only said:
Actually, the full answer is that there are several kinds of alcohol. "Drinking" alcohol is chemically known as ethanol. Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol and is VERY posionous.

Another common one that's called "wood" alcohol is chemically known as methanol and is also posionous. It will cause blindness and insanity in a very short time if you swallow much of it.

There's a common solvent used in industry called "denatured" alchohol. It's primarily ethanol but contains small amounts of of either methanol or isopropyl that makes it unfit for drinking and thus avoids the expensive federal tax charged on all drinking alcohol.
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Ethyl Alcohol - C2H5OH
Isopropyl alcohol - C3H8O
 
Cosmic you need to learn how to spell the word ALOT. Asguard,you are worse. You need to learn how to spell ALCOHOL and SENSE. Get it right morons.
 
ntstlkr said:
Cosmic you need to learn how to spell the word ALOT. Asguard,you are worse. You need to learn how to spell ALCOHOL and SENSE. Get it right morons.
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Did you notice you're talking about three and a half year old posts?:facepalm:
 
All i wanted was simple answer but cosmic and asguard want to argue. How about both of you morons learn to spell. Cosic, repeat after me ALOT. Asguard, you are worse. Repeat very slowly after me. AlCOHOL and SENSE. Get it right morons!!!
 
ntstlkr said:
All i wanted was simple answer but cosmic and asguard want to argue. How about both of you morons learn to spell. Cosic, repeat after me ALOT. Asguard, you are worse. Repeat very slowly after me. AlCOHOL and SENSE. Get it right morons!!!
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Hey imbecile, 'i' should be capitalized. Are you a simpleton, the name is Cosmic not Cosic.;)
 
ntstlkr said:
All i wanted was simple answer but cosmic and asguard want to argue.
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You wanted an answer in 2008 and only now does it bother you? And this is why you came to a thread that asks the difference between tequila and a can of Sterno? And they "want to argue"? That's present tense, bozo. 10 points off for grammar, 20 for capitalization, 30 for jumping the thread like a psycho, and 40 for bailing out of rehab.

Now, step away from the fondue dish.
 
The US requires a poison be added to wood alcohol. This is a throw back from the days of Prohibition and still goes on today.

Wood alcohol, also known as methanol, is the simplest of alcohols and can be made by the dry distillation of wood, hence it's name. Methanol is already poisonous of itself but the effects on the body normally take longer when cut with other fluids, like juice.
 
Ok neat thread. Now my question is. Can you make rubbing alcohol safe to drink?
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
... Methanol (also called "methyl alcohol") itself is not poisonous and upon ingestion will first make us drunk like other alcohols. Humans happen to have an enzyme in our livers (called "alcohol dehydrogenase") that breaks methanol down into formic acid and formaldehyde. These chemicals destroy our optic nerves. ...
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Very interesting. I did not know that. I assume that some humans may lack this enzyme, just as some lack the enzyme for properly digesting milk. Do you know if that is true?
 
Billy T said:
Very interesting. I did not know that. I assume that some humans may lack this enzyme, just as some lack the enzyme for properly digesting milk. Do you know if that is true?
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I would very highly doubt it. Everything from bacteria to humans have that enzyme because it allows you to deal with the ethyl alcohol that is both poisonous and forms in nearly everything with sugar.
 
If your ethanol in wine goes to vinegar, I can make some ethanol out of that.

The isopropanol I can turn into acetone. It would be some work to remove a carbon from that, several steps. Then you would get close to ethanol.
 
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