Asking the difficult questions: Chem professor on leave after asking how much Zyklon B would be required to gas a room full of people. To the chemists here: What's the actual answer? (technology)

submitted ago by shadow332

My guess is probably a lot given those wooden doors.

I don't see why this isn't a reasonable question for a chem exam. Maybe you chem guys can give us some insight. Here's the backstory and the question itself:

A chemistry professor whose exam question asked students to calculate the lethal dose of a poisonous gas used in Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust has taken a leave of absence. Middlebury College in Vermont said that it's investigating under the terms of its faculty misconduct policy.

'This inexplicable failure of judgment trivializes one of the most horrific events in world history, violates core institutional values, and simply has no place on our campus,' wrote Middlebury President Laurie Patton last week. 'We expect our faculty to teach and lead with thoughtfulness, good judgment, and maturity. To say we have fallen short in this instance is an understatement.'

The question posed by Byers asked students to calculate how much poison it would take for them to create a lethal dose of hydrogen cyanide, the deadly chemical mixture used on Jewish people in the Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust. 'Hydrogen cyanide is a poisonous gas, which Nazi Germany used to horrific ends during The Holocaust,' Byers wrote, according to Middlebury Campus.

'The lethal dose for humans is approximately 300. mg of HCN gas per kilogram of air when inhaled... If a room measured [redacted] ft. what mass of air would it have in g if the density fo the air [redacted] [Celsius] (room temperature) is [redacted]?' The exam also instructed students to, 'Calculate the g of HCN that would give a lethal dose in the above room.'

Archived Daily Fail article

Non-archivable local Faux News article

Archived CBS Jews article

Zyklon B was more expensive to make than crating in a more pure form of hydrogen cyanide(s). And even hydrogen cyanide in pellet form is not something anyone would legitmately try and genocide a group of people with. If you want to kill a bunch of people quick and easy, displace oxygen in the tanks. No unnecessary, messy, hazardous chemicals involved.Llet's not pretend like Germans weren't the world leaders in engineering at the time.

You know, if i were a "nasty nazi" looking for efficiency solutions for my freedom labor camp, I would probably experiment with delousing entire groups of people at one go - so, I would like to know the lethal dosage of this delousing agent so that I can be sure not to exceed it. I don't want to kill off my labor but I do want to kill the lice they carry.

Honestly, the whole gas thing is so stupid and makes no sense. There are much simpler and cheaper ways to kill people. I can't believe people still believe this nonsense.

But you guys are the experts, can you calculate this for us? Or give us even a rough estimate?

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EdSnowden ago

10x10x10 room for ease of calculation is 1,000 cubic feet

1,000 cubic feet of air is approximately 36.68 kilos in weight.

300mg/kilo breathed air lethal dose means you’d need just over 11,000mg, or 11g of zyklon b.

ChaoticNeutral ago

Your math is wrong. A lethal dose isn’t measured against the mass of the air in the room. It’s the mass of the person. I redid the math the way a chemist would do it, since I am one.

Molar mass HCN: 27.011 g/mol

270 ppm instantly fatal dose

Room size: 10 ft^3 -> 3.048 m^3 -> 28,350 L

Berlin weather today:

21.11 C -> 294.26 K

30.41 inHg -> 1.016 atm

Ideal gas constant 0.0821 (Latm)/(molK)

(PV)/(RT) = n

(1.01628,350)/(0.0821294.26) = n mols = 1,192.25 mols

N = 1,192.25 mols * 6.022 molecules/mol = 7.1797 E 26 molecules

ppm = 7.1797 E 26 molecules * 27 E-6 molecules = 1.9385 E 22 molecules HCN

1.9385 E 22 molecules HCN / 6.023 E 23 molecules per mol = 3.2 E -2 mols

3.2 E -2 mols * 27.011 g/mol = 0.8695 g = 869 mg

TL: DR 869 mg of HCN in a room 10 ft cubed room would instantly kill everyone inside it.

CaucasianSlavery ago

Much respect for becoming a chemist. How the hell did they ever figure out the periodic chart? It seems an impossible task to the laymen. Not expecting an answer if it’s as complicated as it appears.

ChaoticNeutral ago

The history of the table is actually super interesting. Did you know that the layout we use is only one of many versions that was created? It’s worth looking up.

As far as discovery of each element, those are interesting too. They were done by many people over many years using many methods. The Royal Society of Chemistry has a great periodic table app that has a snippet about how each element was discovered. If you’re interested I would say download it.

CaucasianSlavery ago

Im getting the app. Much appreciated!