How many drops of water are in the ocean?

This question is just for fun. I'm wondering if anyone could find a
logical answer, haha.

I don't believe "drop" is an accepted scientific term for a unit of
measure. Without a definition of what constitutes a drop, there's no
way to answer this question.

Find an estimate for the volume of ocean - Set volume of a drop to
some value.  say .1 ml - divide volume of ocean by the volume of a
drop.

Game.  Set.  Match.

I offered something similar to this once before in response to a
customer who asked a similar question. I believe it also applies in
this instance:

A drop of water has no standard unit of measure. Therefore, regardless
of how large it is, there is only ONE big "drop" in a contiguous body
of water. Your question is like asking "How many peices of ice are
there in a glacier?".

The answer is ONE -  it's just a really, really big one...and THAT is your answer.

tutuzdad-ga

Haaha. You guys made my day, lol. Here's a link to help.

http://www.seps.org/oracle/oracle.archive/Earth_and_Space.K-5/2000.09/000968188992.20627.html

Nope:  A drop is (Webster's)  "1. a small quantity of liquid that
falls or is produced in a more or less sherical mass; a liquid
globule.  "2. the quantity of liquid contained in such a globule."

That is pretty much what we thought it was.

So ...   There are no drops (globules) of water in the ocean, not even
in some dark, devious corner of it  (Japan's Inland Sea*, for
example).

And since the 2nd description nicely defines the quantity as that
contained in such a globule  - and not as the quantity that could be
contained (and we are agreed that this is a great variable, anyway)  -
 there still aren't any drops in the ocean.

*I have nothing against the Japanese or the Inland Sea.

Who is "we"  ?

Tutuzdad-ga,

All the people who write "sherical" instead of "spherical" ...  :)

myoarin

i think only a logical answer is possible to your question.

volume of hydrosphere = 5.054 x10^19 cubic meters 
i.e. the water on the earth`s surface.
now then you assume the some volume for your ideal water drop = x
then your answer will be

total number of drops = 5.054 x10^19 / x

According to the editor of the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page: 

22.2 septillion

The discussion about it is here:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002446#water
"An ocean is made up of one drop of water at a time--peace movements
start the same." This prompted reader Alan Ogletree to do some math:

    There are approximately 80 drops of water per teaspoon (based on a
small, unscientific experiment I ran). Since there are three teaspoons
per tablespoon, 16 tablespoons per cup, two cups per pint, two pints
per quart, and four quarts per gallon, then there are 80 x 3 x 16 x 2
x 2 x 4, or 61,440, drops of water per gallon. Take this and multiply
by the volume of water in the ocean (which I found at this page to be
362 trillion gallons), and you have roughly 22 quintillion drops of
water in the ocean, give or take a few.


THEN THIS CORRECTION led to 22.2 septillion as the "correct" answer:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002460  (look for "Water Torture")
..."Yesterday we noted reader Alan Ogletree's calculation of the
number of drops of water in the ocean. It appears Ogletree's source
underestimated the number of gallons of water in the world's oceans by
six orders of magnitude: According to the U.S. Navy, there are
actually 361.2 quintillion gallons of ocean water, not 362 trillion.
That would put the number of drops at some 22.2 septillion, not 22
quintillion. We regret the error..."


Navy web site confirms the number of gallons of water in the ocean:
http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/educate/neptune/trivia/earth.htm


~~Cynthia

I do questions like this all the time for this Science Olympiad event
called Fermi Questions. Basically, we are given questions like this
for which we have to come up with an approximate answer in terms of
powers of ten and are scored based on how accurate we are.

So, about your question:

Step 1) The volume of the Earth's oceans is approximately 1x10^9 cubic
kilometers (this can be looked up easily - I found it on google).

Step 2) Convert cubic kilometers to cubic meters, and then to cubic
centimeters: (1x10^9 km^3) * 1000 m/km (depth)* 1000 m/km(width)* 1000
m/km(height)= 1x10^18 cubic meters
and (1x10^18 m^3) * 100 cm/m(depth)* 100 cm/m(width)* 100
cm/m(height)= 1x10^24 cubic centimeters

Step 3) Multiply times the approximate number of drops of water per
cubic centimeter (about 10 - at least closer to 10 than 100), so
(1x10^24 cm^3) * 10 drops/cm^3 =
           approximately 1x10^25 drops of water in the Earth's oceans

(I feel like a nerd...)