Water is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. It is vital for all known forms of life, even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that each of its molecules contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, connected by covalent bonds. Water is the name of the liquid state of H2O at standard ambient temperature and pressure. It forms precipitation in the form of rain and aerosols in the form of fog. Clouds are formed from suspended droplets of water and ice, its solid state. When finely divided, crystalline ice may precipitate in the form of snow. The gaseous state of water is steam or water vapor. Water moves continually through the water cycle of evaporation, transpiration (evapotranspiration), condensation, precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea.
Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface, mostly in seas and oceans.
Small portions of water occur as groundwater (1.7%), in the glaciers
and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland (1.7%), and in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of ice and liquid water suspended in air), and precipitation (0.001%).
Water plays an important role in the world economy. Approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a major source of food for many parts of the world. Much of long-distance trade of commodities (such as oil and natural gas) and manufactured products is transported by boats through seas, rivers, lakes, and canals. Large quantities of water, ice, and steam are used for cooling and heating, in industry and homes. Water is an excellent solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances; as such it is widely used in industrial processes, and in cooking and washing. Water is also central to many sports and other forms of entertainment, such as swimming, pleasure boating, boat racing, surfing, sport fishing, and diving.
Etymology
The word "water" comes from Old English "wæter", from Proto-Germanic "*watar" (source also of Old Saxon "watar", Old Frisian "wetir", Dutch "water", Old High German "wazzar", German "Wasser", Old Norse "vatn", Gothic "wato"), from Proto-Indoeuropean "*wod-or", suffixed form of root "*wed-" ("water"; "wet").
Chemical and physical properties
Water (H
2O) is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, nearly colorless with a hint of blue. This simplest hydrogen chalcogenide is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "universal solvent" for its ability to dissolve many substances. This allows it to be the "solvent of life". It is the only common substance to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas in normal terrestrial conditions.
2O) is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, nearly colorless with a hint of blue. This simplest hydrogen chalcogenide is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "universal solvent" for its ability to dissolve many substances. This allows it to be the "solvent of life". It is the only common substance to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas in normal terrestrial conditions.
States
Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley, 1902
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Liquid water, showing droplets and air bubbles caused by the drops
Water is a liquid at the temperatures and pressures that are most adequate for life. Specifically, at a standard pressure of 1 atm, water is a liquid between 0 and 100 °C (32 and 212 °F). Increasing the pressure slightly lowers the melting point, which is about −5 °C (23 °F) at 600 atm and −22 °C (−8 °F) at 2100 atm. This effect is relevant, for example, to ice skating, to the buried lakes of Antarctica, and to the movement of glaciers.
(At pressures higher than 2100 atm the melting point rapidly increases
again, and ice takes several exotic forms that do not exist at lower
pressures.)
Increasing the pressure has a more dramatic effect on the boiling point, that is about 374 °C (705 °F) at 220 atm. This effect is important in, among other things, deep-sea hydrothermal vents and geysers, pressure cooking, and steam engine design. At the top of Mount Everest, where the atmospheric pressure is about 0.34 atm, water boils at 68 °C (154 °F).
At very low pressures (below about 0.006 atm), water cannot exist in the liquid state and passes directly from solid to gas by sublimation—a phenomenon exploited in the freeze drying of food. At very high pressures (above 221 atm), the liquid and gas states are no longer distinguishable, a state called supercritical steam.
Water also differs from most liquids in that it becomes less dense as it freezes. The maximum density of water in its liquid form (at 1 atm) is 1,000 kg/m3 (62.43 lb/cu ft); that occurs at 3.98 °C (39.16 °F). The density of ice is 917 kg/m3 (57.25 lb/cu ft). Thus, water expands 9% in volume as it freezes, which accounts for the fact that ice floats on liquid water.
The details of the exact chemical nature of liquid water are not
well understood; some theories suggest that the unusual behavior of
water is due to the existence of 2 liquid states.
Taste and odor
Pure water is usually described as tasteless and odorless, although
humans have specific sensors that can feel the presence of water in
their mouths, and frogs are known to be able to smell it.
However, water from ordinary sources (including bottled mineral water)
usually has many dissolved substances, that may give it varying tastes
and odors. Humans and other animals have developed senses that enable them to evaluate the potability of water by avoiding water that is too salty or putrid.
Color and appearance
The apparent color of natural bodies of water (and swimming pools) is
often determined more by dissolved and suspended solids, or by
reflection of the sky, than by water itself.
Light in the visible electromagnetic spectrum can traverse a couple meters of pure water (or ice) without significant absorption, so that it looks transparent and colorless. Thus aquatic plants, algae, and other photosynthetic organisms can live in water up to hundreds of meters deep, because sunlight can reach them. Water vapour is essentially invisible as a gas.
Through a thickness of 10 meters (33 ft) or more, however, the intrinsic color of water (or ice) is visibly turquoise (greenish blue), as its absorption spectrum has a sharp minimum at the corresponding color of light (1/227 m−1
at 418 nm). The color becomes increasingly stronger and darker with
increasing thickness. (Practically no sunlight reaches the parts of the
oceans below 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) of depth.) Infrared and ultraviolet
light, on the other hand, is strongly absorbed by water.
The refraction index of liquid water (1.333 at 20 °C (68 °F)) is much higher than that of air (1.0), similar to those of alkanes and ethanol, but lower than those of glycerol (1.473), benzene (1.501), carbon disulfide (1.627), and common types of glass (1.4 to 1.6). The refraction index of ice (1.31) is lower than that of liquid water.
Polarity and hydrogen bonding
Model of hydrogen bonds (1) between molecules of water.
Capillary action of water compared to mercury. Note that the menisci of the two liquids curve in the opposite direction.
Impact from a water drop causes an upward "rebound" jet surrounded by circular capillary waves.
Since the water molecule is not linear and the oxygen atom has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen atoms, it is a polar molecule, with an electrical dipole moment: the oxygen atom carries a slight negative charge, whereas the hydrogen atoms are slightly positive. Water is a good polar solvent, that dissolves many salts and hydrophilic organic molecules such as sugars and simple alcohols such as ethanol. Water also dissolves many gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide—the latter giving the fizz of carbonated beverages, sparkling wines and beers. In addition, many substances in living organisms, such as proteins, DNA and polysaccharides, are dissolved in water. The interactions between water and the subunits of these biomacromolecules shape protein folding, DNA base pairing, and other phenomena crucial to life (hydrophobic effect).
Many organic substances (such as fats and oils and alkanes) are hydrophobic, that is, insoluble in water. Many inorganic substances are insoluble too, including most metal oxides, sulfides, and silicates.
Because of its polarity, a molecule of water in the liquid or solid state can form up to four hydrogen bonds with neighboring molecules. These bonds are the cause of water's high surface tension and capillary forces. The capillary action refers to the tendency of water to move up a narrow tube against the force of gravity. This property is relied upon by all vascular plants, such as trees.
The hydrogen bonds are also the reason why the melting and boiling points of water are much higher than those of other analogous compounds like hydrogen sulfide (H
2S). They also explain its exceptionally high specific heat capacity (about 4.2 J/g/K), heat of fusion (about 333 J/g), heat of vaporization (2257 J/g), and thermal conductivity (between 0.561 and 0.679 W/m/K). These properties make water more effective at moderating Earth's climate, by storing heat and transporting it between the oceans and the atmosphere. The hydrogen bonds of water are of moderate strength, around 23 kJ/mol (compared to a covalent O-H bond at 492 kJ/mol). Of this, it is estimated that 90% of the hydrogen bond is attributable to electrostatics, while the remaining 10% reflects partial covalent character.
2S). They also explain its exceptionally high specific heat capacity (about 4.2 J/g/K), heat of fusion (about 333 J/g), heat of vaporization (2257 J/g), and thermal conductivity (between 0.561 and 0.679 W/m/K). These properties make water more effective at moderating Earth's climate, by storing heat and transporting it between the oceans and the atmosphere. The hydrogen bonds of water are of moderate strength, around 23 kJ/mol (compared to a covalent O-H bond at 492 kJ/mol). Of this, it is estimated that 90% of the hydrogen bond is attributable to electrostatics, while the remaining 10% reflects partial covalent character.
Electrical conductivity and electrolysis
Pure water has a low electrical conductivity, which increases with the dissolution of a small amount of ionic material such as common salt.
Liquid water can be split into the elements hydrogen and oxygen by passing an electric current through it—a process called electrolysis. The decomposition requires more energy input than the heat released by the inverse process (285.8 kJ/mol, or 15.9 MJ/kg).
Mechanical properties
Liquid water can be assumed to be incompressible for most purposes: its compressibility ranges from 4.4 to 5.1×10−10 Pa−1 in ordinary conditions. Even in oceans at 4 km depth, where the pressure is 400 atm, water suffers only a 1.8% decrease in volume.
The viscosity of water is about 10−3 Pa·s or 0.01 poise at 20 °C (68 °F), and the speed of sound
in liquid water ranges between 1,400 and 1,540 meters per second (4,600
and 5,100 ft/s) depending on temperature. Sound travels long distances
in water with little attenuation, especially at low frequencies (roughly
0.03 dB/km for 1 kHz), a property that is exploited by cetaceans and humans for communication and environment sensing (sonar).
Reactivity
Metallic elements which are more electropositive than hydrogen such as lithium, sodium, calcium, potassium and cesium displace hydrogen from water, forming hydroxides and releasing hydrogen. At high temperatures, carbon reacts with steam to form carbon monoxide.
On Earth
Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface; the oceans contain 96.5% of the Earth's water. The Antarctic ice sheet,
which contains 61% of all fresh water on Earth, is visible at the
bottom. Condensed atmospheric water can be seen as clouds, contributing
to the Earth's albedo.
Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of
water throughout the Earth. The study of the distribution of water is hydrography. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, of glaciers is glaciology, of inland waters is limnology and distribution of oceans is oceanography. Ecological processes with hydrology are in focus of ecohydrology.
The collective mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of a planet is called the hydrosphere. Earth's approximate water volume (the total water supply of the world) is 1.338 billion cubic kilometers (321×106 cu mi).
Liquid water is found in bodies of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, canal, pond, or puddle. The majority of water on Earth is sea water. Water is also present in the atmosphere in solid, liquid, and vapor states. It also exists as groundwater in aquifers.
Water is important in many geological processes. Groundwater is present in most rocks, and the pressure of this groundwater affects patterns of faulting. Water in the mantle is responsible for the melt that produces volcanoes at subduction zones. On the surface of the Earth, water is important in both chemical and physical weathering processes. Water, and to a lesser but still significant extent, ice, are also responsible for a large amount of sediment transport that occurs on the surface of the earth. Deposition of transported sediment forms many types of sedimentary rocks, which make up the geologic record of Earth history.
Water cycle
The water cycle (known scientifically as the hydrologic cycle) refers to the continuous exchange of water within the hydrosphere, between the atmosphere, soil water, surface water, groundwater, and plants.
Water moves perpetually through each of these regions in the water cycle consisting of following transfer processes:
- evaporation from oceans and other water bodies into the air and transpiration from land plants and animals into air.
- precipitation, from water vapor condensing from the air and falling to earth or ocean.
- runoff from the land usually reaching the sea.
Most water vapor over the oceans returns to the oceans, but winds
carry water vapor over land at the same rate as runoff into the sea,
about 47 Tt
per year. Over land, evaporation and transpiration contribute another
72 Tt per year. Precipitation, at a rate of 119 Tt per year over land,
has several forms: most commonly rain, snow, and hail, with some contribution from fog and dew.
Dew is small drops of water that are condensed when a high density of
water vapor meets a cool surface. Dew usually forms in the morning when
the temperature is the lowest, just before sunrise and when the
temperature of the earth's surface starts to increase. Condensed water in the air may also refract sunlight to produce rainbows.
Water runoff often collects over watersheds flowing into rivers. A mathematical model used to simulate river or stream flow and calculate water quality parameters is a hydrological transport model. Some water is diverted to irrigation for agriculture. Rivers and seas offer opportunity for travel and commerce. Through erosion, runoff shapes the environment creating river valleys and deltas
which provide rich soil and level ground for the establishment of
population centers. A flood occurs when an area of land, usually
low-lying, is covered with water. It is when a river overflows its banks
or flood comes from the sea. A drought is an extended period of months
or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. This
occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation.
Fresh water storage
The Bay of Fundy at high tide and low tide. At low tide, many rocks are exposed and the boat in the picture is grounded.
Some runoff water is trapped for periods of time, for example in
lakes. At high altitude, during winter, and in the far north and south,
snow collects in ice caps, snow packs and glaciers. Water also
infiltrates the ground and goes into aquifers. This groundwater later
flows back to the surface in springs, or more spectacularly in hot springs and geysers. Groundwater is also extracted artificially in wells.
This water storage is important, since clean, fresh water is essential
to human and other land-based life. In many parts of the world, it is in
short supply.
Sea water and tides
Sea water contains about 3.5% sodium chloride
on average, plus smaller amounts of other substances. The physical
properties of sea water differ from fresh water in some important
respects. It freezes at a lower temperature (about −1.9 °C (28.6 °F))
and its density increases with decreasing temperature to the freezing
point, instead of reaching maximum density at a temperature above
freezing. The salinity of water in major seas varies from about 0.7% in
the Baltic Sea to 4.0% in the Red Sea. (The Dead Sea, known for its ultra-high salinity levels of between 30–40%, is really a salt lake.)
Tides are the cyclic rising and falling of local sea levels caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuarine
water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams.
The changing tide produced at a given location is the result of the
changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled
with the effects of Earth rotation and the local bathymetry. The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, the intertidal zone, is an important ecological product of ocean tides.
Effects on life
An oasis is an isolated water source with vegetation in a desert.
Overview of photosynthesis (green) and respiration (red). Water (at right), together with carbon dioxide (CO2), form oxygen and organic compounds (at left), which can be respired to water and (CO2).
From a biological
standpoint, water has many distinct properties that are critical for
the proliferation of life. It carries out this role by allowing organic compounds to react in ways that ultimately allow replication. All known forms of life depend on water. Water is vital both as a solvent in which many of the body's solutes dissolve and as an essential part of many metabolic processes within the body. Metabolism is the sum total of anabolism and catabolism.
In anabolism, water is removed from molecules (through energy requiring
enzymatic chemical reactions) in order to grow larger molecules (e.g.
starches, triglycerides and proteins for storage of fuels and
information). In catabolism, water is used to break bonds in order to
generate smaller molecules (e.g. glucose, fatty acids and amino acids to
be used for fuels for energy use or other purposes). Without water,
these particular metabolic processes could not exist.
Water is fundamental to photosynthesis and respiration.
Photosynthetic cells use the sun's energy to split off water's hydrogen
from oxygen. Hydrogen is combined with CO2 (absorbed from air or water) to form glucose and release oxygen. All living cells use such fuels and oxidize the hydrogen and carbon to capture the sun's energy and reform water and CO2 in the process (cellular respiration).
Water is also central to acid-base neutrality and enzyme function. An acid, a hydrogen ion (H+, that is, a proton) donor, can be neutralized by a base, a proton acceptor such as a hydroxide ion (OH−) to form water. Water is considered to be neutral, with a pH (the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration) of 7. Acids have pH values less than 7 while bases have values greater than 7.
Aquatic life forms
Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef
Some marine diatoms – a key phytoplankton group
Earth surface waters are filled with life. The earliest life forms
appeared in water; nearly all fish live exclusively in water, and there
are many types of marine mammals, such as dolphins and whales. Some
kinds of animals, such as amphibians, spend portions of their lives in water and portions on land. Plants such as kelp and algae grow in the water and are the basis for some underwater ecosystems. Plankton is generally the foundation of the ocean food chain.
Aquatic vertebrates must obtain oxygen to survive, and they do so in various ways. Fish have gills instead of lungs, although some species of fish, such as the lungfish, have both. Marine mammals, such as dolphins, whales, otters, and seals
need to surface periodically to breathe air. Some amphibians are able
to absorb oxygen through their skin. Invertebrates exhibit a wide range
of modifications to survive in poorly oxygenated waters including
breathing tubes and gills. However as invertebrate life evolved in an aquatic habitat most have little or no specialisation for respiration in water.
Effects on human civilization
Water fountain
Civilization has historically flourished around rivers and major waterways; Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, was situated between the major rivers Tigris and Euphrates; the ancient society of the Egyptians depended entirely upon the Nile. Rome was also founded on the banks of the Italian river Tiber. Large metropolises like Rotterdam, London, Montreal, Paris, New York City, Buenos Aires,
Shanghai, Tokyo, Chicago, and Hong Kong owe their success in part to
their easy accessibility via water and the resultant expansion of trade.
Islands with safe water ports, like Singapore, have flourished for the
same reason. In places such as North Africa and the Middle East, where
water is more scarce, access to clean drinking water was and is a major
factor in human development.
Health and pollution
An environmental science program – a student from Iowa State University sampling water
Water fit for human consumption is called drinking water or potable water. Water that is not potable may be made potable by filtration or distillation, or by a range of other methods.
Water that is not fit for drinking but is not harmful for humans
when used for swimming or bathing is called by various names other than
potable or drinking water, and is sometimes called safe water,
or "safe for bathing". Chlorine is a skin and mucous membrane irritant
that is used to make water safe for bathing or drinking. Its use is
highly technical and is usually monitored by government regulations
(typically 1 part per million (ppm) for drinking water, and 1–2 ppm of
chlorine not yet reacted with impurities for bathing water). Water for
bathing may be maintained in satisfactory microbiological condition
using chemical disinfectants such as chlorine or ozone or by the use of ultraviolet light.
In the US, non-potable forms of wastewater generated by humans may be referred to as greywater, which is treatable and thus easily able to be made potable again, and blackwater, which generally contains sewage and other forms of waste which require further treatment
in order to be made reusable. Greywater composes 50–80% of residential
wastewater generated by a household's sanitation equipment (sinks,
showers and kitchen runoff, but not toilets, which generate
blackwater.) These terms may have different meanings in other countries
and cultures.
This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and
its availability is a major social and economic concern. Currently,
about a billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water.
Most countries accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of
people worldwide who do not have access to safe water and sanitation during the 2003 G8 Evian summit.
Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an
estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water
and over a billion without access to adequate sanitation. Poor water quality and bad sanitation are deadly; some five million deaths a year are caused by polluted drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that safe water could prevent 1.4 million child deaths from diarrhea each year.
Water, however, is not a finite resource (meaning the
availability of water is limited), but rather re-circulated as potable
water in precipitation
in quantities many orders of magnitude higher than human consumption.
Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in
the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce,
rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth.
Water-poor countries use importation of goods as the primary method of
importing water (to leave enough for local human consumption), since the manufacturing process uses around 10 to 100 times products' masses in water.
In the developing world, 90% of all wastewater still goes untreated into local rivers and streams.
Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world's population, also
suffer from medium or high water stress, and 17 of these extract more
water annually than is recharged through their natural water cycles. The strain not only affects surface freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes, but it also degrades groundwater resources.
Human uses
Agriculture
Irrigation of field crops
The most important use of water in agriculture is for irrigation, which is a key component to produce enough food. Irrigation takes up to 90% of water withdrawn in some developing countries
and significant proportions in more economically developed countries
(in the United States, 30% of freshwater usage is for irrigation).
Fifty years ago, the common perception was that water was an
infinite resource. At the time, there were fewer than half the current
number of people on the planet. People were not as wealthy as today,
consumed fewer calories and ate less meat, so less water was needed to
produce their food. They required a third of the volume of water we
presently take from rivers. Today, the competition for the fixed amount
of water resources is much more intense, giving rise to the concept of peak water.
This is because there are now nearly seven billion people on the
planet, their consumption of water-thirsty meat and vegetables is
rising, and there is increasing competition for water from industry,
urbanisation and biofuel crops. In future, even more water will be
needed to produce food because the Earth's population is forecast to
rise to 9 billion by 2050.
An assessment of water management in agriculture was conducted in 2007 by the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka to see if the world had sufficient water to provide food for its growing population.
It assessed the current availability of water for agriculture on a
global scale and mapped out locations suffering from water scarcity. It
found that a fifth of the world's people, more than 1.2 billion, live in
areas of physical water scarcity, where there is not enough water to meet all demands. A further 1.6 billion people live in areas experiencing economic water scarcity,
where the lack of investment in water or insufficient human capacity
make it impossible for authorities to satisfy the demand for water. The
report found that it would be possible to produce the food required in
future, but that continuation of today's food production and
environmental trends would lead to crises in many parts of the world. To
avoid a global water crisis, farmers will have to strive to increase
productivity to meet growing demands for food, while industry and cities
find ways to use water more efficiently.
Water scarcity is also caused by production of cotton:
1 kg of cotton—equivalent of a pair of jeans—requires 10.9 cubic meters
(380 cu ft) water to produce. While cotton accounts for 2.4% of world
water use, the water is consumed in regions which are already at a risk
of water shortage. Significant environmental damage has been caused,
such as disappearance of the Aral Sea.
As a scientific standard
On 7 April 1795, the gram was defined in France to be equal to "the
absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to a cube of one
hundredth of a meter, and at the temperature of melting ice".
For practical purposes though, a metallic reference standard was
required, one thousand times more massive, the kilogram. Work was
therefore commissioned to determine precisely the mass of one liter of
water. In spite of the fact that the decreed definition of the gram
specified water at 0 °C (32 °F)—a highly reproducible temperature—the scientists chose to redefine the standard and to perform their measurements at the temperature of highest water density, which was measured at the time as 4 °C (39 °F).
The Kelvin temperature scale of the SI system is based on the triple point of water, defined as exactly 273.16 K (0.01 °C; 32.02 °F). The scale is an absolute temperature scale with the same increment as the Celsius temperature scale, which was originally defined according to the boiling point (set to 100 °C (212 °F)) and melting point (set to 0 °C (32 °F)) of water.
Natural water consists mainly of the isotopes hydrogen-1 and
oxygen-16, but there is also a small quantity of heavier isotopes such
as hydrogen-2 (deuterium). The amount of deuterium oxides or heavy water
is very small, but it still affects the properties of water. Water from
rivers and lakes tends to contain less deuterium than seawater.
Therefore, standard water is defined in the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water specification.
For drinking
A young girl drinking bottled water
Water availability: fraction of population using improved water sources by country
The human body contains from 55% to 78% water, depending on body size.
To function properly, the body requires between one and seven liters
(0.22 and 1.54 imp gal; 0.26 and 1.85 U.S. gal) of water per day to
avoid dehydration;
the precise amount depends on the level of activity, temperature,
humidity, and other factors. Most of this is ingested through foods or
beverages other than drinking straight water. It is not clear how much
water intake is needed by healthy people, though most specialists agree
that approximately 2 liters (6 to 7 glasses) of water daily is the
minimum to maintain proper hydration.
Medical literature favors a lower consumption, typically 1 liter of
water for an average male, excluding extra requirements due to fluid
loss from exercise or warm weather.
For those who have healthy kidneys, it is rather difficult to
drink too much water, but (especially in warm humid weather and while
exercising) it is dangerous to drink too little. People can drink far
more water than necessary while exercising, however, putting them at
risk of water intoxication (hyperhydration), which can be fatal. The popular claim that "a person should consume eight glasses of water per day" seems to have no real basis in science.
Studies have shown that extra water intake, especially up to 500
milliliters (18 imp fl oz; 17 U.S. fl oz) at mealtime was conducive to
weight loss. Adequate fluid intake is helpful in preventing constipation.
Hazard symbol for non-potable water
An original recommendation for water intake in 1945 by the Food and Nutrition Board of the United States National Research Council
read: "An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 milliliter for
each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared
foods." The latest dietary reference intake report by the United States National Research Council
in general recommended, based on the median total water intake from US
survey data (including food sources): 3.7 liters (0.81 imp gal;
0.98 U.S. gal) for men and 2.7 liters (0.59 imp gal; 0.71 U.S. gal) of
water total for women, noting that water contained in food provided
approximately 19% of total water intake in the survey.
Specifically, pregnant and breastfeeding women need additional fluids to stay hydrated. The Institute of Medicine
(US) recommends that, on average, men consume 3 liters (0.66 imp gal;
0.79 U.S. gal) and women 2.2 liters (0.48 imp gal; 0.58 U.S. gal);
pregnant women should increase intake to 2.4 liters (0.53 imp gal;
0.63 U.S. gal) and breastfeeding women should get 3 liters (12 cups),
since an especially large amount of fluid is lost during nursing.
Also noted is that normally, about 20% of water intake comes from food,
while the rest comes from drinking water and beverages (caffeinated included). Water is excreted from the body in multiple forms; through urine and feces, through sweating,
and by exhalation of water vapor in the breath. With physical exertion
and heat exposure, water loss will increase and daily fluid needs may
increase as well.
Humans require water with few impurities. Common impurities
include metal salts and oxides, including copper, iron, calcium and
lead, and/or harmful bacteria, such as Vibrio. Some solutes are acceptable and even desirable for taste enhancement and to provide needed electrolytes.
The single largest (by volume) freshwater resource suitable for drinking is Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Washing
The propensity of water to form solutions and emulsions is useful in various washing processes. Washing is also an important component of several aspects of personal body hygiene. Most of personal water use is due to showering, doing the laundry and dishwashing, reaching hundreds of liters per day in developed countries.
Transportation
The use of water for transportation of materials through rivers and
canals as well as the international shipping lanes is an important part
of the world economy.
Chemical uses
Water is widely used in chemical reactions as a solvent or reactant and less commonly as a solute or catalyst. In inorganic reactions, water is a common solvent, dissolving many ionic compounds, as well as other polar compounds such as ammonia and compounds closely related to water. In organic reactions, it is not usually used as a reaction solvent, because it does not dissolve the reactants well and is amphoteric (acidic and basic) and nucleophilic. Nevertheless, these properties are sometimes desirable. Also, acceleration of Diels-Alder reactions by water has been observed. Supercritical water
has recently been a topic of research. Oxygen-saturated supercritical
water combusts organic pollutants efficiently. Water vapor is used for
some processes in the chemical industry. An example is the production of
acrylic acid from acrolein, propylene and propane.
The possible effect of water in these reactions includes the physical-,
chemical interaction of water with the catalyst and the chemical
reaction of water with the reaction intermediates.
Heat exchange
Water and steam are a common fluid used for heat exchange, due to its availability and high heat capacity,
both for cooling and heating. Cool water may even be naturally
available from a lake or the sea. It's especially effective to transport
heat through vaporization and condensation of water because of its large latent heat of vaporization. A disadvantage is that metals commonly found in industries such as steel and copper are oxidized faster by untreated water and steam. In almost all thermal power stations,
water is used as the working fluid (used in a closed loop between
boiler, steam turbine and condenser), and the coolant (used to exchange
the waste heat to a water body or carry it away by evaporation in a cooling tower). In the United States, cooling power plants is the largest use of water.
In the nuclear power industry, water can also be used as a neutron moderator. In most nuclear reactors,
water is both a coolant and a moderator. This provides something of a
passive safety measure, as removing the water from the reactor also slows the nuclear reaction down.
However other methods are favored for stopping a reaction and it is
preferred to keep the nuclear core covered with water so as to ensure
adequate cooling.
Fire extinction
Water has a high heat of vaporization and is relatively inert, which makes it a good fire extinguishing
fluid. The evaporation of water carries heat away from the fire. It is
dangerous to use water on fires involving oils and organic solvents,
because many organic materials float on water and the water tends to
spread the burning liquid.
Use of water in fire fighting should also take into account the hazards of a steam explosion,
which may occur when water is used on very hot fires in confined
spaces, and of a hydrogen explosion, when substances which react with
water, such as certain metals or hot carbon such as coal, charcoal, or coke graphite, decompose the water, producing water gas.
The power of such explosions was seen in the Chernobyl disaster,
although the water involved did not come from fire-fighting at that
time but the reactor's own water cooling system. A steam explosion
occurred when the extreme overheating of the core caused water to flash
into steam. A hydrogen explosion may have occurred as a result of
reaction between steam and hot zirconium.
Recreation
Grand Anse Beach, St. George's, Grenada, West Indies
Humans use water for many recreational purposes, as well as for exercising and for sports. Some of these include swimming, waterskiing, boating, surfing and diving. In addition, some sports, like ice hockey and ice skating, are played on ice. Lake sides, beaches and water parks
are popular places for people to go to relax and enjoy recreation. Many
find the sound and appearance of flowing water to be calming, and
fountains and other water features are popular decorations. Some keep
fish and other life in aquariums or ponds for show, fun, and companionship. Humans also use water for snow sports i.e. skiing, sledding, snowmobiling or snowboarding, which require the water to be frozen.
Water industry
A water-carrier in India, 1882. In many places where running water is not available, water has to be transported by people.
A manual water pump in China
Water purification facility
Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in Barcelona, Spain
The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to households and industry. Water supply facilities include water wells, cisterns for rainwater harvesting, water supply networks, and water purification facilities, water tanks, water towers, water pipes including old aqueducts. Atmospheric water generators are in development.
Drinking water is often collected at springs, extracted from artificial borings
(wells) in the ground, or pumped from lakes and rivers. Building more
wells in adequate places is thus a possible way to produce more water,
assuming the aquifers can supply an adequate flow. Other water sources
include rainwater collection. Water may require purification for human
consumption. This may involve removal of undissolved substances,
dissolved substances and harmful microbes. Popular methods are filtering with sand which only removes undissolved material, while chlorination and boiling kill harmful microbes. Distillation does all three functions. More advanced techniques exist, such as reverse osmosis. Desalination of abundant seawater is a more expensive solution used in coastal arid climates.
The distribution of drinking water is done through municipal water systems, tanker delivery or as bottled water. Governments in many countries have programs to distribute water to the needy at no charge.
Reducing usage by using drinking (potable) water only for human
consumption is another option. In some cities such as Hong Kong, sea
water is extensively used for flushing toilets citywide in order to conserve fresh water resources.
Polluting water
may be the biggest single misuse of water; to the extent that a
pollutant limits other uses of the water, it becomes a waste of the
resource, regardless of benefits to the polluter. Like other types of
pollution, this does not enter standard accounting of market costs,
being conceived as externalities
for which the market cannot account. Thus other people pay the price of
water pollution, while the private firms' profits are not redistributed
to the local population, victims of this pollution. Pharmaceuticals consumed by humans often end up in the waterways and can have detrimental effects on aquatic life if they bioaccumulate and if they are not biodegradable.
Municipal and industrial wastewater are typically treated at wastewater treatment plants. Mitigation of polluted surface runoff is addressed through a variety of prevention and treatment techniques.
Industrial applications
Many industrial processes rely on reactions using chemicals dissolved in water, suspension of solids in water slurries or using water to dissolve and extract substances, or to wash products or process equipment. Processes such as mining, chemical pulping, pulp bleaching, paper manufacturing,
textile production, dyeing, printing, and cooling of power plants use
large amounts of water, requiring a dedicated water source, and often
cause significant water pollution.
Water is used in power generation. Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower.
Hydroelectric power comes from water driving a water turbine connected
to a generator. Hydroelectricity is a low-cost, non-polluting, renewable
energy source. The energy is supplied by the motion of water. Typically
a dam is constructed on a river, creating an artificial lake behind it.
Water flowing out of the lake is forced through turbines that turn
generators.
Pressurized water is used in water blasting and water jet cutters.
Also, very high pressure water guns are used for precise cutting. It
works very well, is relatively safe, and is not harmful to the
environment. It is also used in the cooling of machinery to prevent
overheating, or prevent saw blades from overheating.
Water is also used in many industrial processes and machines, such as the steam turbine and heat exchanger, in addition to its use as a chemical solvent. Discharge of untreated water from industrial uses is pollution. Pollution includes discharged solutes (chemical pollution) and discharged coolant water (thermal pollution).
Industry requires pure water for many applications and utilizes a
variety of purification techniques both in water supply and discharge.
Food processing
Water can be used to cook foods such as noodles
Boiling, steaming, and simmering are popular cooking methods that often require immersing food in water or its gaseous state, steam. Water is also used for dishwashing. Water also plays many critical roles within the field of food science.
It is important for a food scientist to understand the roles that water
plays within food processing to ensure the success of their products.
Solutes
such as salts and sugars found in water affect the physical properties
of water. The boiling and freezing points of water are affected by
solutes, as well as air pressure,
which is in turn affected by altitude. Water boils at lower
temperatures with the lower air pressure that occurs at higher
elevations. One mole
of sucrose (sugar) per kilogram of water raises the boiling point of
water by 0.51 °C (0.918 °F), and one mole of salt per kg raises the
boiling point by 1.02 °C (1.836 °F); similarly, increasing the number of
dissolved particles lowers water's freezing point.
Solutes in water also affect water activity that affects many chemical reactions and the growth of microbes in food. Water activity can be described as a ratio of the vapor pressure of water in a solution to the vapor pressure of pure water.
Solutes in water lower water activity—this is important to know because
most bacterial growth ceases at low levels of water activity. Not only does microbial growth affect the safety of food, but also the preservation and shelf life of food.
Water hardness is also a critical factor in food processing and
may be altered or treated by using a chemical ion exchange system. It
can dramatically affect the quality of a product, as well as playing a
role in sanitation. Water hardness is classified based on concentration
of calcium carbonate the water contains. Water is classified as soft if
it contains less than 100 mg/l (UK) or less than 60 mg/l (US).
According to a report published by the Water Footprint
organization in 2010, a single kilogram of beef requires 15 thousand
liters (3.3×103 imp gal; 4.0×103 U.S. gal)
of water; however, the authors also make clear that this is a global
average and circumstantial factors determine the amount of water used in
beef production.
Medical use
Sterile water for injection
Water for injection is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines.
Distribution in nature
In the universe
Band 5 ALMA receiver is an instrument specifically designed to detect water in the universe.
Much of the universe's water is produced as a byproduct of star formation.
The formation of stars is accompanied by a strong outward wind of gas
and dust. When this outflow of material eventually impacts the
surrounding gas, the shock waves that are created compress and heat the
gas. The water observed is quickly produced in this warm dense gas.
On 22 July 2011, a report described the discovery of a gigantic
cloud of water vapor containing "140 trillion times more water than all
of Earth's oceans combined" around a quasar
located 12 billion light years from Earth. According to the
researchers, the "discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the
universe for nearly its entire existence".
Water has been detected in interstellar clouds within our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Water probably exists in abundance in other galaxies, too, because its
components, hydrogen and oxygen, are among the most abundant elements in
the universe. Based on models of the formation and evolution of the Solar System and that of other star systems, most other planetary systems are likely to have similar ingredients.
Water vapor
Water is present as vapor in:
- Atmosphere of the Sun: in detectable trace amounts
- Atmosphere of Mercury: 3.4%, and large amounts of water in Mercury's exosphere
- Atmosphere of Venus: 0.002%
- Earth's atmosphere: ≈0.40% over full atmosphere, typically 1–4% at surface; as well as that of the Moon in trace amounts
- Atmosphere of Mars: 0.03%
- Atmosphere of Ceres
- Atmosphere of Jupiter: 0.0004% – in ices only; and that of its moon Europa
- Atmosphere of Saturn – in ices only; and that of its moons Titan (stratospheric),[citation needed] Enceladus: 91% and Dione (exosphere)
- Atmosphere of Uranus – in trace amounts below 50 bar
- Atmosphere of Neptune – found in the deeper layers
- Extrasolar planet atmospheres: including those of HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b, Tau Boötis b, HAT-P-11b, XO-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b, and WASP-19b.
- Stellar atmospheres: not limited to cooler stars and even detected in giant hot stars such as Betelgeuse, Mu Cephei, Antares and Arcturus.
- Circumstellar disks: including those of more than half of T Tauri stars such as AA Tauri as well as TW Hydrae, IRC +10216, and APM 08279+5255,] VY Canis Majoris and S Persei.
Liquid water
Liquid water is present on Earth, covering 71% of its surface. Liquid water is also occasionally present in small amounts on Mars. Scientists believe liquid water is present in the Saturnian moons of Enceladus, as a 10-kilometre thick ocean approximately 30–40 kilometers below Enceladus' south polar surface, and Titan, as a subsurface layer, possibly mixed with ammonia. Jupiter's moon Europa has surface characteristics which suggest a subsurface liquid water ocean. Liquid water may also exist on Jupiter's moon Ganymede as a layer sandwiched between high pressure ice and rock.
Water ice
South Polar ice cap of Mars during Martian South summer 2000
- Mars: under the regolith and at the poles.
- Earth-Moon system: mainly as ice sheets on Earth and in Lunar craters and volcanic rocks NASA reported the detection of water molecules by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in September 2009.
- Ceres
- Jupiter's moons: Europa's surface and also that of Ganymede and Callisto
- Saturn: in the planet's ring system and on the surface and mantle of Titan and Enceladus
- Pluto-Charon system
- Comets and other related Kuiper belt and Oort cloud objects
And is also likely present on:
Exotic forms
Water and other volatiles probably comprise much of the internal structures of Uranus and Neptune and the water in the deeper layers may be in the form of ionic water in which the molecules break down into a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper still as superionic water in which the oxygen crystallises but the hydrogen ions float about freely within the oxygen lattice.
Water and habitable zone
The existence of liquid water, and to a lesser extent its gaseous and solid forms, on Earth are vital to the existence of life on Earth as we know it. The Earth is located in the habitable zone of the solar system; if it were slightly closer to or farther from the Sun
(about 5%, or about 8 million kilometers), the conditions which allow
the three forms to be present simultaneously would be far less likely to
exist.
Earth's gravity allows it to hold an atmosphere. Water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide a temperature buffer (greenhouse effect)
which helps maintain a relatively steady surface temperature. If Earth
were smaller, a thinner atmosphere would allow temperature extremes,
thus preventing the accumulation of water except in polar ice caps (as on Mars).
The surface temperature of Earth has been relatively constant through geologic time despite varying levels of incoming solar radiation (insolation),
indicating that a dynamic process governs Earth's temperature via a
combination of greenhouse gases and surface or atmospheric albedo. This proposal is known as the Gaia hypothesis.
The state of water on a planet depends on ambient pressure, which
is determined by the planet's gravity. If a planet is sufficiently
massive, the water on it may be solid even at high temperatures, because
of the high pressure caused by gravity, as it was observed on
exoplanets Gliese 436 b and GJ 1214 b.
Law, politics, and crisis
An estimate of the share of people in developing countries with access to potable water 1970–2000
Water politics is politics affected by water and water resources.
For this reason, water is a strategic resource in the globe and an
important element in many political conflicts. It causes health impacts
and damage to biodiversity.
Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades
in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people
still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to
adequate sanitation. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability.
A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in some
developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.
1.6 billion people have gained access to a safe water source since 1990. The proportion of people in developing countries with access to safe water is calculated to have improved from 30% in 1970 to 71% in 1990, 79% in 2000 and 84% in 2004. This trend is projected to continue. To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water is one of the Millennium Development Goals. This goal is projected to be reached.
A 2006 United Nations report stated that "there is enough water
for everyone", but that access to it is hampered by mismanagement and
corruption. In addition, global initiatives to improve the efficiency of aid delivery, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness,
have not been taken up by water sector donors as effectively as they
have in education and health, potentially leaving multiple donors
working on overlapping projects and recipient governments without
empowerment to act.
The authors of the 2007 Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
cited poor governance as one reason for some forms of water scarcity.
Water governance is the set of formal and informal processes through
which decisions related to water management are made. Good water
governance is primarily about knowing what processes work best in a
particular physical and socioeconomic context. Mistakes have sometimes
been made by trying to apply 'blueprints' that work in the developed
world to developing world locations and contexts. The Mekong river is
one example; a review by the International Water Management Institute
of policies in six countries that rely on the Mekong river for water
found that thorough and transparent cost-benefit analyses and
environmental impact assessments were rarely undertaken. They also
discovered that Cambodia's draft water law was much more complex than it
needed to be.
The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR, 2003) from the World Water Assessment Program
indicates that, in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available
to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30%. 40% of the world's
inhabitants currently have insufficient fresh water for minimal hygiene. More than 2.2 million people died in 2000 from waterborne diseases (related to the consumption of contaminated water) or drought. In 2004, the UK charity WaterAid reported that a child dies every 15 seconds from easily preventable water-related diseases; often this means lack of sewage disposal.
Organizations concerned with water protection include the International Water Association (IWA), WaterAid, Water 1st, and the American Water Resources Association. The International Water Management Institute undertakes projects with the aim of using effective water management to reduce poverty. Water related conventions are United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Ramsar Convention. World Day for Water takes place on 22 March and World Ocean Day on 8 June.
In culture
Religion
Water is considered a purifier in most religions. Faiths that incorporate ritual washing (ablution) include Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, the Rastafari movement, Shinto, Taoism, and Wicca. Immersion (or aspersion or affusion) of a person in water is a central sacrament of Christianity (where it is called baptism); it is also a part of the practice of other religions, including Islam (Ghusl), Judaism (mikvah) and Sikhism (Amrit Sanskar).
In addition, a ritual bath in pure water is performed for the dead in
many religions including Islam and Judaism. In Islam, the five daily
prayers can be done in most cases after completing washing certain parts
of the body using clean water (wudu), unless water is unavailable (see Tayammum). In Shinto, water is used in almost all rituals to cleanse a person or an area (e.g., in the ritual of misogi).
In Christianity, holy water is water that has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects, or as a means of repelling evil.
In Zoroastrianism, water (āb) is respected as the source of life.
Philosophy
The Ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles held that water is one of the four classical elements along with fire, earth and air, and was regarded as the ylem, or basic substance of the universe. Thales,
who was portrayed by Aristotle as an astronomer and an engineer,
theorized that the earth, which is denser than water, emerged from the
water. Thales, a monist, believed further that all things are made from water. Plato believed the shape of water is an icosahedron which accounts for why it is able to flow easily compared to the cube-shaped earth.
In the theory of the four bodily humors, water was associated with phlegm, as being cold and moist. The classical element of water was also one of the five elements in traditional Chinese philosophy, along with earth, fire, wood, and metal.
Water is also taken as a role model in some parts of traditional
and popular Asian philosophy. James Legge's 1891 translation of the Dao De Jing
states, "The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence
of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying,
without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike.
Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao" and "There is nothing in
the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things
that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of
it—for there is nothing (so effectual) for which it can be changed." Guanzi
in "Shui di" 水地 chapter further elaborates on symbolism of water,
proclaiming that "man is water" and attributing natural qualities of the
people of different Chinese regions to the character of local water
resources.
Dihydrogen monoxide hoax
Water's technically correct but rarely used chemical name, "dihydrogen monoxide", has been used in a series of hoaxes and pranks that mock scientific illiteracy. This began in 1983, when an April Fools' Day article appeared in a newspaper in Durand, Michigan. The false story consisted of safety concerns about the substance.
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