Water is one of the most abundant substances on Earth, and one of the most important - it is an extremely valuable economic resource, but also one that we waste thoughtlessly and pollute monstrously.
In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as World Water Day. And not without reason - without water, we cannot exist.
Fresh water reserves
The largest amount of water is contained in the Earth's mantle. This is approximately 10 times more than all the water in the World Ocean. Almost all the water on the planet is not suitable for drinking. We can only use about 3% of the water, which is the amount of fresh water on the planet. But even most of this 3% is not yet available to us, since it is contained in glaciers and permafrost.
97% of the water on Earth is salt water; Water is found in the Earth's lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, and so on, accounting for only 0.3% of the world's fresh water reserves. The rest is preserved in glaciers or in the soil.
There is more water in the atmosphere than in all rivers combined. If all the water vapor in our planet's atmosphere turned into liquid water at once and fell as precipitation evenly across the planet, it would raise sea levels by only about 2 centimeters.
Physical properties of water
Water boils at a temperature of +100 °C. Exactly this useful property water allows you to get rid of many harmful microorganisms by boiling for a long time.
Purified water free of all impurities is called distilled. The most interesting and surprising thing about this is that a person cannot drink such water.
Water contains a large number of gases, including oxygen and nitrogen. It is this circumstance that makes it possible for fish and other inhabitants of seas and rivers to exist calmly in the water and breathe through their gills.
There is a dead and living water. It can be obtained by passing an electric current in separate vessels with electrically conductive walls.
Since water contains a lot of dissolved salt, its density increases slightly. For example, in the Mediterranean
Hot water heavier than cold. This is explained by the fact that when heated, a large amount of dissolved gases come out of it, which are significantly lighter in density than liquid.
Perhaps the most interesting fact about water is that water expands when it freezes. This is what causes heating systems to burst if warm water is not constantly circulated through them in winter.
Water begins to freeze at zero degrees Celsius. It would be logical to assume that it has the greatest density precisely at this mark on the thermometer. However, water has its greatest density at a temperature of +4 °C.
What is surprising is that its density is maximum at +4 °C, i.e. under such conditions it becomes the heaviest for the same volumes.
Water cannot be compressed with a conventional press. When compressed, water begins to seep through the walls of the press. The same applies to any other substance in a liquid state. But ordinary ice compresses without problems.
Due to the fact that ice easily melts with friction, we can skate without experiencing serious resistance on its surface.
Water, being in different states, reflects light differently. Snow can reflect up to approximately 85% sun rays, and water is only 5%. That is why it is able to store so much energy from the sun's rays.
The blue color of clear ocean water can be explained by the selective absorption of a certain part of the spectrum and the scattering of light in the water.
From school, we know that any substance can be in only 3 states of aggregation: liquid, solid and gaseous. However, scientists distinguish 5 different states of water in liquid form and 14 states of ice.
Some researchers count more than 2,000 structured forms of water.
There are over 135 isotopic varieties of water. Their names are very appropriate: “live”, “dead”, “heavy”, “slippery”, “dry” and “rubber”.
Which water do you think is more likely to turn into ice: hot or cold? A strange question, because it is obvious that it is colder. After all, hot food must first be cooled, and only then allowed to freeze. However, experience has proven that it is hot water that turns into ice faster.
There is still no clear answer to this question, why hot water freezes faster than cold water. It is probably due to differences in supercooling, evaporation, ice formation, convection, or the reason is the effect of dissolved gases on hot and cold water.
There is a natural phenomenon that scientists call supercooling of water. Crystal clear water that does not contain impurities has this property. Even when cooled below freezing, such water still remains liquid. However, as the temperature drops, the water will still turn into ice or boil.
Continuing to cool the frozen clean water, you can notice its miraculous transformations. At -120°C water becomes super viscous or viscous, and at temperatures below -135°C it will turn into “glassy” water. "Glass" water is a solid substance that lacks a crystalline structure, just like glass.
Humanity's use of water
A running toilet can waste up to 800 liters of water every day.
Just one faulty tap leaking water drops per second can result in a leakage of 14,000 liters per year.
The bath uses up to 35 liters of water; a five-minute shower consumes from 10 to 25 liters.
First water pipes in the USA were made from hollowed out logs.
748 million people in the world do not have access to quality sources of drinking water.
2.5 billion people do not have access to a water-flush toilet.
Around 1.8 billion people around the world drink water that is contaminated with excrement.
In developing countries, women and girls are primarily responsible for collecting water; on average, 25% of the time is spent on this task.
Collectively, South African women and children walk the equivalent of 16 round trips every day to fetch water.
Water leak in household is 15 trillion. liters annually.
On average, an American uses about 100 liters of water per day.
On average, a European person consumes about 50 liters of water per day.
On average, a person in sub-Saharan Africa uses 2-5 liters of water per day.
Human health and water
Water is the basis of life. All living animals and plants consist of water: animals - 75%, fish - 75%, jellyfish - 99%, potatoes - 76%, apples - 85%, tomatoes - 90%, cucumbers - 95% , and watermelons - by 96%.
Water not only gives rise to living things, but can also take them away. Approximately 85% of all diseases known to mankind in the world are transmitted by water. About 25 million people die every year from these diseases.
As we age, the tissues of the human body lose water. Based on fat-free body mass: In infants, water makes up 80.6% of the body, in adults - 75.9%, in the elderly - 65-70%.
Using water you can get rid of excess weight. Drinking water alone as a drink to quench your thirst may affect your overall calorie intake. Water replaces carbonated high-calorie drinks and after it you crave sweets less, as is the case with tea or.
Water reduces the likelihood of a heart attack. Scientists have found that those people who drink about 6-7 glasses of water a day are less at risk of heart stroke, unlike those who drink only 1-2 glasses of pure water.
Without water, a person cannot live long. The need for water comes second after oxygen. A person can live about 6 weeks without food, and 5-7 days without water. Over the course of his entire life, a person drinks approximately 35 tons of water.
When a person loses only 2% of his body weight in water, he becomes very thirsty. If the proportion of lost water increases to 10%, then the person will begin to hallucinate. With a loss of 12%, a person will no longer be able to recover without medical care. With a loss of 20%, the person will simply die.
Saving water resources
Water is deceptive. It flows freely from the sky and seems to flow endlessly in rivers, but it is a very limited resource. We only have what we have. And although there are about 332,500,000 cubic miles of it on Earth - only 0.01% of the world's total water reserves, not all of it is available for human use. We really need to learn how to use water.
Since a typical open tap produces 2 liters of water per minute, you can save up to 4 liters of water each morning by turning off the tap while you brush your teeth.
Polluted groundwater is purified naturally over several millennia.
How much water do you need?
7.5 liters per person per day to meet the needs of most people and about 5 liters per person per day to cover basic hygiene needs.
10 liters of water are required to make 1 sheet of paper.
It takes about liters of water to make 17 ounces of plastic.
3500 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice.
It takes about 15,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of beef.
Other facts about water
As you know, water cannot burn. However, in Azerbaijan there is a type of water that is highly saturated with methane, which can cause it to catch fire if you bring a match to it.
In Sicily, in one of the lakes, there are underwater sources of acid that poison the water in this reservoir.
The most expensive water- this is the one that a person wants to get during times of strong thirst. As for ordinary trade, the most expensive water in the world is sold in Los Angeles, USA. The manufacturer packages the liquid with a balanced taste and ph value in bottles with Swarovski rhinestones. The cost of one such bottle is $90 per 1 liter.
Sea water is an extremely nutritious substance. So 1 cu. cm of such water contains 1.5 grams of protein and other nutrients. Scientists believe that the Atlantic Ocean alone, in terms of its nutritional value, can provide as much food as 20 thousand crops that are harvested throughout the year throughout the land.
Water is the most unique substance on the planet. It makes up 75% of the human body and 70% of the Earth's surface. This article contains amazing and Interesting Facts about water that you have never even heard of.
- 1. 10 times more water is contained in the Earth's mantle than on its surface - in the oceans.
- 2. Only 3% of the total amount of water on our planet is fresh water. And a third of its reserves are suitable for consumption, the rest is in glaciers.
- 3. The water in the oceans has a blue tint due to the diffuse flow of light in its waters.
- 4. Light is reflected differently in different states of water. For example, snow reflects 85% of the sun's rays, and water only 5%. But only 2% of the light passes under the ocean ice.
- 5. Oddly enough, ice in different parts of the world has different temperatures. In Antarctica the ice is the coldest - minus 60 degrees, in Greenland - minus 28 degrees, in the Alps - only 0 degrees.
- 6. Do you know the area of snowflakes in one gram of snow? 0.06 - 0.37 meters squared.
- 7. Interesting facts about water also concern its generally accepted physical properties. For example, everyone knows that water has solid, liquid and gaseous states. But scientists distinguish 5 separate states in the liquid state and 14 in the solid state.
- 8. The well-known chemical formula of water, H 2 O, exists only on paper. But such pure water simply does not exist in nature. This is explained by the fact that water is an excellent solvent, and it contains a huge amount of impurities.
- 9. According to the criterion of origin, water can be melted, soil, or from fresh snow. In terms of the number of substances, there are even more types. Therefore, science knows about 1300 types of water.
- 10. The average water temperature on the surface of the world's oceans is 17.4 degrees. By the way, in the lower layers of air above it it is 14.4 degrees.
- 11. One cubic centimeter of sea water contains one and a half grams of protein and a large amount of other substances. Therefore, according to scientists, the nutritional value of the Atlantic Ocean is equal to twenty thousand of the world's annual crops.
- 12. Oceans, which occupy three quarters of the planet’s surface, soften the Earth’s climate, thereby warming the lower layers of the atmosphere.
- 13. One trillion tons of water evaporate from the earth's surface every day, that is, 1000,000,000,000 water.
- 14. There are about 8 septillion molecules in a glass of water. That's 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules.
- 15. 46% of the total amount of water on Earth contains Pacific Ocean, 23% - Atlantic, 20.3% - Indian, 3.7% - Arctic.
- As is known, water It conducts electricity well, so you should not swim with electrical appliances or during a thunderstorm with lightning. But this is not interesting, but the fact that pure (distilled) water itself is a dielectric, and electricity is carried out by molecules of impurities and ions of various mineral salts.
- The density of water in a liquid state is greater than in a solid state, so ice does not sink in water, but always remains on the surface.
- Everyone knows that humans are approximately 2/3 water, but in animals this figure is slightly less. They consist of about half water. But the most interesting thing is the jellyfish. They consist of up to 99% water.
- Oddly enough, hot water freezes faster than cold water, i.e. If you pour the same amount of cold and hot water into the same containers, the hot water will turn into ice faster. The discovery itself was made in 1963 by a schoolboy from Tanzania, Erasto Mpemba.
- In different states, water reflects light differently. For example, snow reflects approximately 90 percent of solar energy, and water only 5%.
- If you cool pure water to about -120 degrees, it will become viscous and even viscous.
- Sea water freezes at a temperature of -2 degrees.
- Water changes its structure depending on environment. An experiment was conducted: Two identical containers with the same water. Heavy music was turned on for one container, and classical music for the other. The crystals of the water that “listened” to heavy music became ugly and uneven, while the water that “listened” to classical music, on the contrary, changed its structure for the better. The crystal became smoother and more beautiful.
- A similar experiment was also conducted: one container of water was yelled at with obscenities, and the other water was from a church (Holy). Later, water from these containers was used to water the seeds. Seeds that were watered with “cursed” water gave only 48% of germination, while seeds watered with Holy water gave as much as 93% of germination.
- It is believed that the purest fresh water is in Finland.
- March 22 is considered World Water Day.
- A person dies after losing approximately 10% of body weight in water.
- Most of the fresh water is found in glaciers.
- It has long been proven that water absorbs information, including negative information. Therefore, many recommend drinking melt water, since when it freezes, the water erases all information and becomes clean, and also strengthens health, immunity and restores the joy of life.
- Despite the fact that our planet is almost 80% covered with water, only 1% is suitable for drinking.
Water is one of the most important and necessary substances for humans. It is needed for drinking, for cooking, in everyday life and in industry. Without water, life cannot exist. Every schoolchild knows all this. But in this post we will look at various interesting facts about water that you might not know about.
1) Water is one of the most common substances in the Universe
There are places on Earth where water is in short supply. Some even believe that our planet is very lucky that there is quite a lot of water here, unlike Venus or Mars. But in fact, water is one of the most common substances in the Universe. The fact is that water consists of hydrogen and oxygen, while hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe, and oxygen is the third most abundant. By easily reacting with each other, hydrogen and oxygen form water. So there is a lot of water in space and in the solar system.
Planets, satellites of planets, comets and asteroids, especially those far enough from the Sun that water does not turn into steam, are very largely composed of water.
For example, there is a lot of water on Jupiter's satellite Europa. The entire satellite is covered with a thick layer of ice, and underneath it, scientists believe, there is an ocean of liquid water about 100 km deep.
2) A person can live without water for several days
Typically a person needs about 2 liters of water per day. But if there is no water, how long can a person live? Most often you can find information that a person can live from three to five days without water. Of course, these are approximate dates; much depends on the state of the person himself and external conditions. In a hot desert, a person is unlikely to live without water for more than a day, because he will die from heatstroke. But at low temperatures, you can live without water for quite a long time. There is a documented case (in the city of Frunze in 1947) when a person was able to live without water for 20 days.
A person can die from thirst not only in the desert, but also in the open sea if he does not have fresh water. Many shipwreck victims have tried to drink salty sea water, but statistics from such cases show that in this case people usually die even faster. The reason is that in sea water the concentration of salts is much greater than in the human body, and their accumulation has the most severe consequences for health.
However, there are animals on the planet that are much tougher than humans. For example, the African fish Protoptera has learned to endure drought by burrowing into the ground and hibernating for several months.
Protopter
And the champions of survival, tardigrades, can even survive complete drying out.
3) Clean water can cause poisoning
It sounds paradoxical, but it is a fact. If you drink too much water, you can get poisoned and die. This will happen due to the fact that the kidneys will not be able to quickly remove too much water, the water-salt balance in the body will be disrupted and the person may die. For some people, an amount of water of 3 liters or more can be dangerous if this amount is drunk within an hour.
Some cases of water poisoning have become widely known. For example, in 2007, in California, employees of a radio station decided to hold a competition, raffling off a game console. According to its conditions, the one who drinks the most water wins. The winner, Jennifer Strange, who drank 6.5 liters of water, soon felt ill and died from water intoxication 5 hours later.
4) Water can boil and freeze at different temperatures
Everyone knows that water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 degrees. But in reality these temperatures can be different. First, both the boiling point and freezing point of water depend on pressure. What is this dependence?
The higher the pressure, the higher the boiling point of water, and the lower it is, the lower the temperature. If you lower the pressure, the water will boil at an increasingly lower temperature until, at a pressure of 611.73 Pa (or 0.006 atmospheres), the boiling point of water is equal to its freezing point - 0.01 °C. At this and lower pressures, water can no longer exist in liquid form.
Video - if you pump out air, water boils at room temperature:
What happens if you increase the pressure? The boiling point of water will also increase (so, for example, in a pressure cooker at high blood pressure You can cook food faster), but only up to a certain limit. At a temperature of 374 °C and a pressure of 22 MPa (218 atm), water will still turn into steam, in fact, the differences between its liquid and gaseous states will disappear.
The freezing point of water also depends on pressure, and as pressure increases, it first decreases, reaching -22 °C at a pressure of 2200 atmospheres, and then begins to increase again.
But you can influence when water boils or freezes in another way. It is known that especially pure water, even at normal pressure, can not freeze at temperatures below zero and cannot boil at temperatures above 100 degrees. Such especially pure water, by carefully cooling, can be cooled to -33 °C, and by carefully heating, it can be brought to 200 °C. However, with the slightest shock or the addition of impurities to such water, it instantly freezes or, accordingly, boils.
Video - instant freezing of supercooled water:
5) Water is an excellent solvent
Many substances dissolve under the influence of water, breaking up into individual atoms or ions. In this case, the properties of the solution differ significantly from both the properties of pure water and the properties of the original substance. For example, neither pure salt nor pure water conducts electricity, as opposed to a solution of salt in water.
Both solids and gases dissolve in water, while the solubility of solids increases with increasing temperature, and the solubility of gases decreases. That is, oxygen in cold water more will dissolve, and less salt will dissolve. Some substances dissolve in water in very large quantities. For example, as much as 71 kg of thallium hypophosphite can be dissolved in 1 liter of water.
6) The water is not as soft as it seems
Normally, water appears soft and harmless, but when something hits it at high speed, it will seem very hard. For example, jumping into water from a height of 50 m or more is not much safer than jumping onto concrete.
A jet of water under high pressure is quite capable of cutting metal:
7) Water has surface tension
Water molecules are attracted to each other, and those of them that are on the surface, other molecules tend to pull into the liquid. Thus, water tends to reduce its surface, and since the ball has the smallest surface, small amounts of water take the form of spherical droplets. However, in zero gravity and large quantities water takes the shape of a ball:
Some substances dissolved in water can change its surface tension. For example, soap and washing powders reduce it, which is why water molecules begin to attract less to each other and better wet other substances, so clothes are washed better.
1. Water covers 70% of the territory of our planet. At the same time, only 3% of this amount is fresh, that is, suitable for drinking. But most of it cannot be used, since it is located in glaciers.
2. Hot water freezes faster than cold water. Experiments experimentally prove this, but scientists still don’t know for sure why this happens.
3. Water may not freeze down to – 42 degrees. Very pure water, without impurities, can be cooled to this temperature while remaining liquid. The fact is that ice begins to form around the particles of impurities contained in the water.
4. Water has memory. Hydrogen bonds unite H2O molecules into groups, which are commonly called clusters, and these in turn form clathrates. Structured water is precisely water with an ordered organization of clusters. Since water clusters can rearrange themselves from any influence, it turns out that water records all the information surrounding it. Scientists call this effect “water memory.”
5. Adequate water is essential for heart health. Observations showed that people who drank 6 glasses of water a day had healthier hearts than people who drank 2 glasses.
6. Dehydration occurs when the body loses an amount of water equal to 2% of body weight. Dehydration of more than 10% of body weight becomes life-threatening. Water loss of 12% of weight cannot be restored without doctors.
7. Over the course of his entire life, a person drinks approximately 35 tons of water. After oxygen, water is the most necessary substance.
8. One billion people do not have access to safe water. Every sixth inhabitant of the Earth dreams of drinking plenty of water at least once, but does not have such an opportunity. If in our country you can get a drink of water simply by opening the tap in your apartment, then there are regions where drinking water– luxury.
9. In the last 50 years, there have been 507 conflicts related to access to water in the world. 21 of them ended in hostilities.
10. The cleanest water is in Finland. Followed by Canada and New Zealand. This is evidenced by UNESCO data from 2003.
11. Every continent now has its own “dead” river which has become unfit for any use at all due to contamination. For example, one of the branches of the Ganges in Bangladesh, the Buriganga River, is officially recognized as dead. The bay at the mouth of the Mississippi is practically dead: almost no organisms survive there, despite the presence of purification systems. The most polluted river in the world is the Citarum on the island of Java.
12. By 2050, the acidity of the oceans will increase by 150%, which will lead to irreversible changes in marine ecosystems, said a UN report at the climate change conference in Copenhagen.
13. Over the course of a year, a person consumes 60 tons of water through diet alone. To grow 1 kilogram of potatoes you need to spend 100 liters of water, 1 kilogram of rice - 4000 liters of water, 1 kilogram of beef - 13000 liters of water. It takes 2,400 liters of water to produce one hamburger.
14. 260 million tons of plastic products end up in the world's oceans every year. Two million tons of human waste enter natural reservoirs every day.
15. Polluted groundwater takes several millennia to clear.