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This surprises me!

I calculate that if all the viral particles in my garden were arranged end-to-end they would reach to the Sun.

It's estimated that each cm3 of soil contains 1011 such particles, of multifarious kinds, some known to science, most not. A typical diameter for a virus particle is 10-7 m. 

So the particles in each cm3 would stretch for 1011 x 10-7 m = 104 m = 10 km.

I estimate the volume of topsoil in my garden as a bit over 15 m3, and 1 m3 = 106 cm3.

That gives a distance of 15 x 106 x 10 km = 150 million km, the distance from here to the Sun. 

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