Water is easily the most known compound in the world. Water is able to easily change from a solid, to liquid to gas. Those three changes are the different states of matter that water can easily undergo when put under heat. In its purest form, without any other added elements or compounds, water is dihydrogen oxide. Two hydrogen atoms bonded with one oxygen atom. Pure water is very rare however. Ninety-seven percent of the Earth’s water is saltwater (American Water Works Association, 2002). This only leaves three percent of the Earth’s water as an available resource. But even then, not a lot of water is available. That is because two percent of the Earth’s water is locked up inside glaciers (American Water Works Association, 2002). While it is plausible to use this water as a resource, the glaciers are just too far away from civilization, so it would be very hard to gain access to this resource. That leaves around one percent of the Earth’s water as easily accessible freshwater. But, what if one was able to able to purify the saltwater, thus making a new sustainable water resource? Water is able to be purified, creating a renewable resource, thanks to the physics behind the hydraulic cycle and heat.
There are three main different states of matter that water can go through. Those are solid, liquid and gas. The changing of water naturally in this process is called the hydraulic cycle. The hydraulic cycle functions when heat is either put in or out of the system. The start of the hydraulic cycle, on an overall picture, is when surface water is evaporated. That means that the water is put under heat, and changed from a liquid to a gas (Department of Atmospheric Sciences & University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign, 2010). Then the wat...
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...many lives. The global economy will benefit as well, with more water to plant crops and run factories with. Physics is behind everything, and because of physics, everything will be changed and evolve to a more sustainable world.
References
American Water Works Association (2002). Water On Earth. Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://www.fcwa.org/story_of_water/html/earth.htm
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, & University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign (2010). A Summary of the Hydrologic Cycle:bringing all the pieces together. Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/smry.rxml
LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS. (2010, May 18). Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookener1.html
Thermodynamics. (1996). Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://mysite.pratt.edu/~arch543p/readings/thermodynamics.html
Baker, William C., and Tom Horton. "Runoff and the Chesapeake Bay." GreenFILE. EBSCO, Nov.-Dec. 1990. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
Ficklin, Darren L., Iris T. Stewart, and Edwin P. Maurer. "Climate Change Impacts On Streamflow And Subbasin-Scale Hydrology In The Upper Colorado River Basin." Plos ONE 8.8 (2013): 1-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
The hydrologic cycle is how water moves through the natural process of evaporation, condensing as clouds and then falling back to the earth as rain, sleet, snow or fog. The Hydologic Cycle as defined by Lutgens F. and Tarbuck E. (2013), “The unending circulation of Earth’s water supply. The cycle is powered by energy from the sun and is characterized by continuous exchanges of water among the oceans, the atmosphere, the geosphere and the biosphere.” In Napa California the hydrologic cycle is when water enters the system as rainfall and leaves the system as either runoff to the San Francisco Bay or evaporates back into the cycle.
Precipitation is the source for both groundwater and surface water in the Basin. Most flow in perennial streams is from snowmelt and rejected recharge from Mesozoic through Precambrian aquifers in the surrounding mountains and irrigation return flows from Quaternary and Tertiary aquifers (Taucher et al., 2012). The basins consumptive uses make up 37% of surface and ground water use and is used for agriculture, stock water, domestic/municipal, industrial/mining water, and reservoir evaporation (Taucher et al., 2012). The flow of surface water alters throughout the year as well as ground water. The monthly changes in flow are heavily reliant on the amount of precipitation that the area had received throughout the year. The most obvious occurrence is between April and August for the Wind-Bighorn River when average monthly flow rises from around 300cfs in April to 1,600cfs in June, and back down to 300cfs in August. This large spike can mostly be attributed to the melting of snow in the high country. Ground water released by springs drive up peak flow during this time of the year increasing total
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Leonardo da Vince once said. Water is a huge part of life, and everything that lives requires water to make it through its days on earth. A lot of people think that the world has massive amounts of water available for use; therefore, most roll their eyes when conserving water is mentioned. After all, 71% of the earth’s surface is made up of water. However, the truth is that only 2.5% of that is clean, drinkable water, and two-thirds of that percentage is unavailable because it is stuck in ice caps and glaciers (water). The water ordeal in America is bigger than many realize, and the United States needs to begin looking at how we can solve this issue. The U.S. needs to acknowledge the impending dangers and help the states that are already suffering by putting water conservation methods in place and investing money into research for alternatives.
There are numerous stages that take place simultaneously in the hydrologic cycle and this includes evaporation. This is when the water alters from a liquid state into a gas. The damp air from the water rises into the atmosphere and when it cools, the vapor condenses and shapes into clouds. But those billows are not the only form the vapors make; it can also materialize as dew, fog and mist, which blanket the Earth, characteristically on a rainy or humid day. Evaporation takes place when water changes from a liquid state into a gaseous state, and ascents out of the pores of the earth and into the atmosphere as a vapor (“How”). While evaporation is taking place, condensation is also occurring. When the temperature in the air plunges, the clouds become heavy and as a result they relieve themselves of the extra weight, which is called precipitation. This produces rain, hail, snow and sleet, conditioned upon the temperate. As the precipitation falls, it enters the surface of the ground and percolates into the soil, which is called infiltration. The more porous the land is, the more the infiltration can take place. However, the ground cannot hold all of that water and floods. The excess rainfall, which is also called runoff that has not been absorbed makes its way into bodies of water, such as small ponds, rivers, lakes and parts of the ocean (“Summary”).
Living in a world that is roughly 70% water, and all living creatures found on this planet depend on this resource whether directly or indirectly, making water quality an important topic and vital to sustain our world of cycles. “Determination of status of water quality of a river or any other water sources is highly indeterminate. It is necessary to have a competent model to predict the status of water quality and to advice for type of water treatment for meeting different demands.” (Bai V, 2009) With most of our water on this planet made of salt water and our constant damage towards the remaining water that can be consumed by humans is diminishing with improper distribution on a global scale. If our greed comes before companionship, and our quality of life is more important than pollution, then our future generations to come will be born into a world of chaos, and a scarce of a basic human necessity.
Introduction on Water It covers 70% of our planet, makes up 75% of our body, it is necessary for survival and it is declining at a rapid rate (http://www.sscwd.org). It is water. Unfortunately, clean water is rare, almost 1 billion people in developing countries do not have access to water everyday. “Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles” (The Water Project). Use of earth’s natural resources should be seen as prosperity, although it is taken for granted, every aspect of daily life revolves around the environment, forcing water conservation to be necessary for future on this planet.
The average human can not live any longer than three days without water. Many of the world’s fresh water sources are running dry or are being contaminated, particularly in developing nations, leaving many without safe water to drink. Only two and a half percent of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and less than one percent is accessible by humans (not tied up in ice caps). This one percent of the Earth’s water supply is expected to sustain a population of over 7 billion people, each needing 2.6 liters a day to remain fully healthy, plus all of the water required for agriculture and industry. These scenarios will only become more and more prevalent as time moves on and we consume more water. The United Nations has classified our planet as being in the midst of a global “water crisis.” Global water supply and shortages are becoming an incredibly real and serious issue, and planning for the future is key to preventing population decline due to a lack of safe drinking water. Shortages of drinking water lead to wars and serious international conflict for basic human survival needs. One of the most popularly and commonly proposed solutions to this problem is to create seawater desalination plants to remove salt from ocean water to make it safe to drink. These water desalination plants, however, are not a viable option to carry us in to the future due to their potentially harmful impacts and expenses.
It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, and groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today.
Water is on of the most precious natural resources that exist on our planet. “It is delivered from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, hail, fog, and condensation and returns to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration” (Hannigan 1969). Although many of us love activities that have to do with water, we disregard it and pollute out rivers, lakes and oceans. Slowly but surely we are going to harm out planet till no return. Protecting and conserving nature will secure a better future. 71% of earth is covered with oceans. Sounds like a lot right? Imagine ...
Of this water approximately 97% is salt water, 2% frozen in glaciers, and only 1% is available for drinking water supply using traditional treatment methods” (Thornton). Therefore, properly treated or disinfected water can help to reduce the spread of water-borne diseases. Everybody around the world depends on water, so people need to be perceptive of the water challenges. A lot of clean, useful water is wasted by humans all the time, so people don’t care about saving water because they have easy access to it.
Water is the most priceless resource on our planet. Billions of gallons flow through our rivers and lakes. Millions of gallons are consumed by humans each day. Our world’s surface is seventy percent water. With so much water around us, how can 1.1 billion people still lack access to clean water (Cooper, Water Shortages)? People are already using fifty four percent of all the freshwater available on this planet (Cooper, Water Shortages). We cannot afford to neglect something so essential to our very survival. We must defend our most important natural resource—water.
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of the water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only 1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes.
Water plays such an important role in our daily lives. 70% of our body is composed of water. 70% of the earth surface is also made up of water, but out of the 70%, only 1/3 of water is consumable. In fact, this amount has been continuously to decrease as more and more industries began to pollute and damage the water. For example, many toxic chemicals may be released into the water thus making the water impure. Such pollutions and damages lead the water to be contaminated and inconsumable as it may cause severe diseases. Water purification can remove all the unnecessary bacteria and viruses from the water that is hazardous for our health. Water purification may also improve the flavor and appearance of water. It removes the unpleasant odor. Therefore, water purification became one of the most useful and popular process used by people all over the world today. It is by far the most recommended and safest water treatment that is commonly used to purify damaged water into consumable water. Water purification provides us with safe, pure and clean water to consume and use.