eli5: why does water that has sat in a metal water bottle for 1 day taste like metal, but water that sat in a plastic bottle for 1 year doesn’t taste taste plastic?
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When water sits in a metal bottle, molecules from the metal can get into the water. Because metal molecules are much smaller than plastic molecules, the metal can get into the water quickly, so the water tastes like metal after only one day. But when water sits in a plastic bottle, the plastic molecules are much bigger than the water molecules, so it takes much longer for the plastic molecules to get into the water. That’s why it takes a whole year for the water to start tasting like plastic.
It’s hard to explain this without mentioning ions and the way that taste buds work. Basically- sour taste is sensed by an ion of hydrogen, table salt (NaCl aka sodium chloride) is made of a metal ion and a non-metal ion. Plastic bottles may be leaching stuff into your water just the same as the metal bottle is, but your taste buds are not made to taste the plastic “stuff”
Tldr
You lick metal, you taste metal. You lick plastic, you taste nothing.
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