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[–] InyourfaceNancyGrace 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

I use ethanol as a solvent, ethanol is in hand sanitizers... because it is is the active ingredient. Not good to drink it.

Same could be said for water, 70% ethanol + water sanitizes better than pure ethanol or water because of cell permeability factors. And of course water is an excellent solvent for many applications (and poor in many as well, like ethanol). Not that I'm saying it's not good to drink it, just as a former chemist and generally argumentative bastard I saw the need to point out poor reasoning.

Birds and moose have been known to get wasted on fermented fruit as well. But let's be better than our food eh?

[–] Nucleonic 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I appreciate your perspective. As a programmer - chemistry is something I have only a basic working knowledge of. When I rub something with alcohol, it works a lot better. No, I do not know the difference between a polar and non-polar solvent and while I could learn I'm busy with other things.

It damages your body badly. Nearly every organ. It's definitely a better solvent than water, by a large margin because I scrub off miserable grime with it and water would do nothing.

Maybe you can chime in? I'd appreciate more of your expertise, if you have time.

[–] InyourfaceNancyGrace 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

No, I do not know the difference between a polar and non-polar solvent and while I could learn I'm busy with other things.

It's definitely a better solvent than water, by a large margin because I scrub off miserable grime with it and water would do nothing.

That kind of says it all right there - knowing the difference in polarities of solvents is fundamental to understanding what they'll be good at ("like dissolves like"). Yea ethanol is great for greasy/oily stuff, the more concentrated it is the better. I keep a spray bottle of >90% ethanol in the shop specifically for that - it's not as good as say, dichloromethane or toluene (both very nonpolar while ethanol has a slight polarity to it), but it's also safer and cheaper. And basically none of those will dissolve table salt very well. "Polar" basically means a solvent has charged (positive/negative) domains/areas. Water has oxygen (-) on one side and two hydrogens (+) on the other. NaCl (table salt) is an ionic compound, meaning the Na (+) can mingle with the oxygen while the Cl(-) can mingle on the hydrogen side. Ethanol has a poorly-polar OH group that can mingle with the ions a little bit, but the 2-carbon backbone won't at all.

And of course, water is your body's solvent, so everything in your body is floating around in aqueous solution. Same with the ocean. Just, you know, before you go saying water's not a good solvent, it just depends on your application. Like saying Tom Brady isn't a good athlete because he can't bowl or something.

There's an awful lot to explain, but just knowing that polar solvents have charged domains while nonpolar solvents don't, and that there are solvents in between (like ethanol or methanol) can take you away. Couple that with "like dissolves like" and you've got a rudimentary understanding of solvents. Nonpolarity can usually be discovered with water - if water beads up on or rolls right off of it (or in the case of liquids if they're immiscible i.e. "don't mix"), it's hydrophobic and therefore nonpolar.

It's funny because I'm a (former) biochemist that tried to break into programming but somehow got stuck in data science (and I like it here). I find my chemistry knowledge fades by the day; it's more for trivia than anything these days. Basic chemistry knowledge like solubility/solvents/solutes I feel everyone should have a handle on. I say usually just say "chemist" because I had a pretty good regimen of organic chem, thermodynamics, inorganic chem, and [shudder] quantum mechanics along the way.