• Question: how many different types of water are there

    • Keywords:
      • Search for related information:
      Asked by #french fries to Andrew, Jade, Jessica, Kevin, Lynn on 15 Jun 2015.
      • Photo: Jess Wade

        Jess Wade answered on 15 Jun 2015:

        Ah! Tricky one. I think you mean, how many different liquids are there?

        There is only one type of ‘water’, which is the liquid state of H2O. Water is everywhere on earth- in clouds, in rain, in oceans, in rivers in streams and in lakes. A water molecule is two hydrogen molecules bonded to an oxygen (H2-O). Water goes through a lifecycle on earth that we call the ‘water cycle’. It gets hot an evarporates from the earth’s surface, condenses in clouds (squishes up) then falls as rain. Eventually it runs back in to the sea as a river, and then evaporates again. When water cools down it forms a solid H2O that we call ice.

        There are LOTS of different liquids- so many we could even begin to count. We separate liquids into different categories by something called their pH. That tells us if a liquid is neutral like water, or ‘acid’ like orange juice or vinegar or alkali like a soap. We can test for the pH using paper called ‘litmus’ paper, which changes colour based on what type of liquid we’re looking at. Ask your teacher if they have any ‘litmus’ paper and start classifying all the different liquids you find!

      • Photo: Lynn Martin

        Lynn Martin answered on 15 Jun 2015:

        In my job there are different types of water. They are all the same basic H20 but come from different sources or have been polluted and contain different things to what may be expected. I am looking at the composition of the water down to parts per billion and can see diifernces. These may be as a result of the environment in which they are sourced from. I can tell a sample from Rathlin which is an island off ireland from its results as it is so different to the rest of the samples

      • Photo: Jade Owen

        Jade Owen answered on 15 Jun 2015:

        There are two main types of water:

        The first is the normal water we get out of our taps – H2O (an oxygen and two hydrogen atoms). This can then be separated into more groups depending on what minerals are contained within it. If its tap water but doesn’t contain much calcium it’s known as ‘soft’ water. If it has lots of calcium it’s known as ‘hard’ water. Then if most of the mineral ions (e.g. sodium, chloride, sulphate, calcium etc) have been removed to be used in a laboratory it’s called deionised water. Finally if almost all the ions have been removed it’s known as high purity water.

        The second type of water is called heavy water. This is where hydrogen is replaced with deuterium (D2O). Deuterium is the same as hydrogen – it just happens to have an extra neutron in the middle making it heavier. An atom with an extra neutron is known as an isotope. Therefore deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen.

    Comments