Tasks at Hand

Source - http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/tasks-at-hand

See, it's funny because you might think that a mountain made of rock candy would dissolve into the alcohol streams.

For those of you who aren't aware, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a song first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928 based partially on older hobo ballads telling tales of a more perfect world just a little further down the road.



That's Harry there singing the song.

In the chorus, you can hear the lines...

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
...
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws, nor picks,
I'ma goin' to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the Turk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain

Most of it isn't about chemistry but rather about a fantasy world where hobos were always heading to.

But would those alcohol streams really have such deleterious effects on a Big Rock Candy Mountain?

Well, assuming the rock candy is primarily sucrose and that alcohol streams are pure ethanol, not so much. See, the literature value for solubility of sucrose in ethanol is 0.6g / 100mL. That's much lower than sucrose's solubility in water (210g / 100mL). You can see that here.



If the 'little streams of alcohol' were actually spirits that you could purchase from a liquor store, though, they would be mixtures of alcohol and water (the percentage of alcohol is roughly equal to half the proof of the alcohol - 80 proof ~ 40% ethanol in water), then you'd have a much bigger problem.

But not as bad an erosion problem as you would have with just little steams of water.

Who knew?