To confirm the social-distance rule: If cough droplets are 0.1 mm and ejected at 10 m/s, a quick Stokes law calculation shows that they travel about 2m laterally and settle in about 1s. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUTjWTdWkAIQ73D?format=jpg … (chart courtesy of @DrPascalMeier).
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In this simple Stokes law calculation, the distance scales with 1/R², so larger droplets go farther (more inertia). So a lot depends on the size spectrum.
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Of course if you are hit by larger gobs you are also more prone to notice. When small droplets evaporate before they hit the floor, the virus may stay in the air and waft around for a while.
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It's a rule of thumb, not a magic protection bubble. There's air currents to consider, statistical outliers for distance expelled, and human error. All in addition to the possibility of some slight airborne thing going on. 2m is minimum, not optimal.
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What is the mechanism if someone doesn’t cough? Can it spread just through one’s breath?
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