Access to water for those people who have it often seems to be a completely natural thing, arising as if out of duty. When turning the tap, water should run out of the spout. Cold. When turning the other - hot. It seems to us that it has been and will always be so. In fact, back in the 1950s, many Muscovites had a water supply system, not to mention a sewerage system, in their homes. And moving to a communal apartment with a thousand times cursed in literature and cinema common kitchens and toilets meant for people, first of all, the absence of the need for any need for water to run to a column, a well or a squalid boardwalk.
Access to clean water is just that achievement of civilization, which is often called a thin film over millennia of savagery. It is very useful for us, modern people, to remember that water is a miracle that not only gave us life, but also allows us to maintain it. It will be equally useful and interesting to learn some facts related to water and its use.
1. Water has the greatest density not at the freezing point, but at a temperature of about 4 degrees. Thus, in winter, relatively warmer water rises to the ice, preventing the water from freezing completely and preserving the life of aquatic animals. Only shallow water bodies can freeze to the bottom. Deeper ones freeze only in extreme frosts.
2. Well-purified water may not freeze even at temperatures well below 0 ° C. It's all about the absence of crystallization centers. The smallest mechanical particles and even bacteria can act in their role. Snowflakes and raindrops are formed in a similar pattern. If there are no such crystallization centers, the water remains liquid even at -30 ° C.
3. The electrical conductivity of water is also associated with crystallization. Pure distilled water is a dielectric. But the foreign impurities in it make water a conductor. Therefore, no matter how clean the water in the reservoir may seem, swimming in it in a thunderstorm is very dangerous. And the cinematic fall of a switched on electrical appliance into a bathtub with soapy tap water is really deadly.
4. Another practically unique property of water is that it is lighter in the solid state than in the liquid state. Accordingly, the ice does not sink to the bottom of the reservoir, but floats from above. Icebergs also float because their specific gravity is less than water. Due to the lack of fresh water, there have long been projects to transport icebergs to regions where there is not enough water.
5. Water can still flow upward. This statement does not violate the laws of physics - water flows up the soil and plants due to the capillary effect.
6. The balance of water in the human body is very fragile. The state of health worsens even with a lack of 2% water. If the body lacks 10% of water, it is in mortal danger. An even greater deficiency can be compensated for and restored the water content in the body only with the help of medicine. Most deaths from diseases such as cholera or dysentery are caused by severe dehydration.
7. Every minute a cubic kilometer of water evaporates from the surface of the oceans and seas. However, there is no need to worry about the total dehydration of our planet - about the same amount of water returns to the ocean. One water molecule takes 10 days to complete a complete cycle.
8. Seas and oceans occupy three quarters of the surface of our planet. The Pacific Ocean alone is a third of the world's area.
9. All waters of the World Ocean located south of the 60th parallel have a negative temperature.
10. The warmest water is in the Pacific Ocean (on average + 19.4 ° С), the coldest - in the Arctic - -1 ° С.
11. The content of salts in the waters of different parts can vary in a wide range, and the ratio of the salts themselves to water is constant and so far defies explanation. That is, in any sample of sea water salts, sulfates will be 11%, and chlorides - 89%.
12. If you evaporate all the salt from the waters of the oceans and carefully scatter it over land, the layer thickness will be about 150 meters.
13. The saltiest ocean is the Atlantic. In one cubic meter of its water, on average, 35.4 kg of salts are dissolved. The most "fresh" ocean is the Arctic Ocean, in a cubic meter of which is dissolved 32 kg.
14. The water clock was used as early as the 17th century. The skeptical attitude towards this device is not entirely true. For example, the Romans counted one twelfth of the time between sunrise and sunset as one hour. With the lengthening and shortening of the day, the size of the hour changed significantly, but the water clock was designed so that it reacted to the change in the length of the day.
15. During the Second World War, all known deposits of magnesium ores were controlled by Germany. In England and the United States, they found a way to extract magnesium - a critical raw material for the military industry - from sea water. It turned out that it is even cheaper than smelting this metal from ore. As a result, magnesium dropped in price by 40 times.
16. Although it has long been known that one billion dollars of useful substances can be evaporated from a cubic kilometer of seawater, so far only salt (about a third of the world consumption of table salt), magnesium and bromine are extracted from it.
17. Hot water freezes and extinguishes fire faster than cold water. An explanation for these facts has not yet been found.
18. The swamps of Western Siberia contain more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of water. This is almost half of all water that is simultaneously found in all the rivers of the Earth.
19. Water has repeatedly become the cause of international conflicts during which weapons were used. The arena of these conflicts most often became Africa, the Middle East, as well as the border regions of India and Pakistan. There have already been more than 20 armed clashes over access to fresh water, and only an increase in their number is expected in the future. The explosive population growth requires more and more water, and it is very difficult to increase the amount of available fresh water. Modern desalination technologies are expensive and require a lot of energy, which is also in short supply.
20. The total volume of waste discharged by mankind into the world's oceans is estimated at 260 million tons per year. The most famous landfill in the water is the Pacific Garbage Patch, which can be up to 1.5 million square meters. km. The stain may contain 100 million tons of garbage, mainly plastic.
21. Brazil, Russia, USA, Canada and Indonesia have the largest share of renewable water resources. Least of all - in Kuwait and the Caribbean.
22. In terms of numbers, India, China, USA, Pakistan and Indonesia consume the most water. Least of all - Monaco and all the same small islands in the Caribbean. Russia ranks 14th.
23. Iceland, Turkmenistan, Chile, Guyana and Iraq have the largest water consumption per capita. The list is occupied by African countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Benin, Rwanda and Comoros. Russia ranks 69th.
24. Tap water with sewage is the most expensive in Denmark - almost $ 10 per cubic meter (data from 2014). From 6 to 7.5 dollars per cubic meter is paid in Belgium, Germany, Norway and Australia. In Russia, the average price was $ 1.4 per cubic meter. In Turkmenistan, until recently, water was free, but only 250 liters per person per day. Extremely low water prices in Indonesia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
25. The most expensive bottled water is “Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani” (“Crystal clear water in memory of Modigliani” (Amedeo Modigliani - Italian artist). 1.25 liter bottle made of gold decorated with gold sculpture. Inside is a mixture of water from France , from Iceland and Fiji Islands.
