What is Water?
Looking for water facts? Before you give you 60 fascinating facts about water, let’s quickly find out what is water.
Water is a chemical substance made of two elements – Oxygen and Hydrogen. Water is tasteless, odorless, transparent, and inorganic. It is nearly colorless.
Water exists as molecules. Every molecule of water contains two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. So, the chemical formula for water is H2O. The Hydrogen atoms are positively charged and Oxygen atom is negatively charged.
The main constituent of the hydrosphere of Earth is water. It is also the main constituent of the fluids present in all living organisms.
Water – that extraordinary fluid without which no life on earth can survive!
Unfortunately, we humans don’t know much about it despite the fact that we keep on using it on a daily basis.
So, let’s get rid of the ignorance and learn a little bit about this incredible fluid.
Water Facts: 1-5
1. In a single flush, 1.6 gallons or 6 liters of clean water is used by any average toilet!
2. We get our daily water sitting right at home. But, did you known that there are many places in Asia and Africa where people actually walk a distance of 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles to get hold of the daily water they need?
3. On this planet earth, 3.4 million human deaths are caused on an average every single year because of causes that are related to water!
4. Of the total water available in this world, only 1% is actually drinkable!
5. Nearly 700 million Chinese people do not have access to clean water. They drink contaminated water!
Water Facts: 6-10
6. If you think billboards have nothing to do with water, think again. In Peru, you will find a billboard which is capable of producing not just any water but drinkable water out of nothing but thin air!
7. You think our bones are all calcium right? Wrong! 31% of our bone density is made of water.
8. Pure water is a very poor conductor of electricity. So, if you sit in pure water with no impurities in it and someone drops an electric wire it in, you will end up getting only mild shocks. It is the impurities in the water that actually conduct electricity.
9. Hot water is lighter than cold water.
10. Of all fresh water found on earth, 90% is concentrated in Antarctica.
Water Facts: 11-15
11. There is water outside earth. Yes! And that’s liquid water actually. That water reservoir that is floating in deep space holds 140 trillion times the total water we have on earth oceans!
12. Of all water used in an average home, 2/3rd goes for bathroom uses.
13. Our poop (yikes) also has water in it. But how much? An astonishing 75% of poop is actually water.
14. Are you drinking water that Cleopatra drank once? The probability of any glass of water you pick up for drinking containing at least one water molecule that Cleopatra drank is actually 1 (which is essentially 100%).
15. Too much of anything is not really good and that is true even for water. Drink too much water in too little time and you will have water intoxication. That can actually kill you!
Water Facts: 16-20
16. Of the total mass of earth, only 0.07% is water mass. Of the total volume of earth, 0.4% is water.
17. But… 70.9% of entire earth’s surface is actually covered with water!
18. You think water is a colorless fluid? Think again! You have been taught wrong in schools. Water is actually light turquoise blue. Water gets its color because it can only weakly absorb visible spectrum’s red light.
19. Lake Baikal in Russia holds 20% of unfrozen fresh water present on planet earth.
20. Under special circumstances, hot water can actually freeze way quicker than cold water. This effect is known as Mpemba Effect.
Water Facts: 21-25
21. You think vending machines are modern? Well, think again! World’s first known vending machine dates back to 1st Century CE which actually dispensed Holy Water after accepting a coin!
22. In order to make a single pair of jeans, 2,900 gallons of water is required!
23. In Austria, Holy Water was tested for purity. It turned out that 86% of the tested water contained fecal matter that came from hands of people.
24. You will see expiration date on packaged drinking water bottles. That date is not for the water but for the bottle.
25. There is a machine which is sponsored by Bill Gates. Specialty of that machine? It makes drinking water from poop!
Water Facts: 26-30
26. Camels are not supreme when it comes to surviving for long time without drinking water. Giraffes actually beat them!
27. How long can you hold your breath under water? The world record for that is 22 minutes!
28. Of all the water present on earth, only 0.003% can be actually used by humans.
29. At top of Mount Everest, water boils as 160 degrees Fahrenheit or 71 degrees Celsius.
30. We know that bones are 31% water. What about our skin? That’s an incredible 64%. Even more shocking kidneys and muscles are 79% water!
Water Facts: 31-35
31. Though a really ugly thing to say, did you know that if you actually flushed your toilet only once in a day, you could save an astonishing 2,190 gallons of water in a single year? Well, that’s true for every person on earth!
32. In India, one man stepped forward and used native techniques of water preservation to not only revive 5 rivers that were dying but also managed to get water into 1000 villages. That’s an amazing achievement, ain’t it? The man’s name is Rajendra Singh and he is from Uttar Pradesh.
33. If you are using your hands to wash dishes, you will be using up 7 times more water that what a modern dishwasher machine uses!
34. We spend more water on our recreation than for our survival needs. How so? In America, an average golf course, in a single day, uses 312,000 gallons of water for maintenance!
35. “Tying water into knots” – doesn’t that sound a bit of science fiction story? Well, it is not! In 2013, two physicists from University of Chicago managed to achieve this.
Fascinating Water Facts: 36-40
36. Though we don’t have the correct numbers in hand, this is what scientists say – the total number of stars in observable universe is same as the total number of H2O molecule you will find in 10 drops of water.
37. Compared to 1970, the U.S. now uses less water. That’s good news!
38. To grow enough oranges that can be used for making a glass of orange juice, you need 50 glasses of water.
39. In this solar system, what is older than sun? You will say nothing, right? Well, you are wrong! A new model has been developed in Chemistry which states that 50% of all water that we find on earth today actually came from interstellar ice that existed before the sun was formed. So, earth actually inherited water from outside. That’s cool! We are using water which is older than 4.6 billion years!
40. Cats are afraid of water but why? Scientists say that the ancestors of cats lived in areas where there were very few water bodies that were large. So, they really didn’t need to learn how to swim as there was no benefit in doing so. Since they didn’t learn how to swim, cats today are a bit afraid of water.
Water Facts: 41-45
41. Your eyes turn red when you jump into chlorinated pool. Is it the chlorine that causes the problem? Not really. The chlorine actually binds with body wastes like urine, sweat etc. that the swimmers bring into the pool. That is when a breed of chemicals known as chloramines are formed. These chemicals then off-gas into the air and irritate eyes and even skin and respiratory tract.
42. Of the total freshwater that humans use, nearly 70% of it is actually used for livestock and agriculture.
43. The interconnected water system in California, USA is the largest water system in world. It was designed to manage more than 40 million acre feet of water annually.
44. Did you know that every day, an average shower actually wastes 75 liters or 20 gallons of water?
45. Do you know how much water is required to create one cup of coffee? Well, from starting from growing enough beans and then processing them into a single cup of coffee, 140 liters or 37 gallons of water is used up.
Water Facts: 46-50
46. You wear cotton T-shirts? Do you know how much water is required to produce enough cotton to create one T-shirt? Well, that’s an astonishing 2,700 liters or water.
47. It was found in a study that you become more creative, happier and calmer if live with sight of water in front of your eyes.
48. In 2013, water took over soda as the favorite drink of the American people. Until 2013, soda ruled as the favorite drink of US people for over 20 years straight.
49. We are not talking of world. We are talking of US alone. Do you know that every year 22 million gallons of drinking water gets thrown away in landfills while being trapped in bottles of packaged drinking water?
50. Just how much new water will be created on earth in next million or zillion years? Can you guess? Well, NONE! The amount of water that is present on earth was already there and it will be there. No new water will be formed.
Water Facts: 51-55
51. At what rate does polluted water kill children? Have you seen a jumbo jet? Load a jet complete with people and now have one such loaded jet crash every 4 hours. That’s the rate at which children get killed by polluted water.
52. There are well over a billion people on this earth who do not have access to any fresh water source.
53. Right beneath our earth’s surface is a water reservoir which has 3 times the total volume of water present in all oceans and seas on earth taken together.
54. If we add up the number of hours each African spend every day to collect water, it turns out that they collectively spend 40 billion hours a year just for collecting water.
55. If you have a faucet that leaks at the rate of just one drop a second, do you know how much water is lost in a year? It is a staggering 3,000 gallons.
Water Facts: 56-60
56. Assume that water molecules live and die (which is not the case but we are asking you only to assume). Assume that water molecules live for 100 years. Now, do you know the life cycle of that water molecules? They will spend 98 years in ocean. They will spend 20 months as ice. They will spend 2 weeks in lakes and rivers and less than 7 days in atmosphere.
57. By the year 2025, nearly 50% of the total population in this world will live in countries that will be under high water stress.
58. There is enough water vapor in our atmosphere, right? What will happen if all the water vapor suddenly falls down on earth’s surface with a perfectly even distribution? Don’t get worried. That event will cover the earth’s surface with only 1 inch of water.
59. We spend a lot of money on bottled water each year. A study showed that if just 1/3rd of the total money the world spends on packaged drinking water is properly spent on water projects, we can comfortably take care of water needs of every individual in this world!
60. Did you know jellyfish and cucumber have something in common? 95% of both of them are made up of water!
Water Frequently Asked Questions
Is water a molecule or a compound?
Why is water both a molecule and a compound?
What is the color of water?
What is the shape of a water molecule?
Does water expire?
How is a water molecule formed?
Who discovered the composition of water?
Does drinking water make a person fat?
Is distilled water safe to drink?
Distilled water has what is called a flat taste. You won’t like it. The flat taste is attributed to the removal of minerals such as magnesium and calcium during the distillation process.
Because distilled water has no minerals, it does have a tendency to leech minerals from whatever it touches. So, when you drink, it will leech some minerals from your body, including your teeth. The amount of minerals it pulls is small and it will not cause problems, because the food you eat provides you with all the minerals and prevents distilled water from making your body mineral deficient.
The problem comes when you try to store distilled water in some container, especially plastic containers. Distilled water can pull trace amounts of plastic from the plastic container. When the plastic gets into your body, it can harm you.
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