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Explain the function of water in living organisms
Function of water in living organisms
Questions on hydrologic cycle
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Discussion
Besides drinking it to survive, people have many alternative uses for water. These can be : cooking, taking a bath, washing clothes, washing cooking and eating utensils; such as billies, saucepans, crockery and cutlery, keeping houses and communities clean, recreation; such as swimming pools, keeping plants alive in gardens and parks. Water is made up of two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. Water is the most common element found on earth. Water may exist in liquid, solid and gaseous states. Water as water itself in liquid form, then it becomes solid when frozen and it can also become a gas when it is in its water vapor state. Although water can be found anywhere where the ocean is, not all of it is drinkable. So how do we get water that’s safe for
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The hydrologic cycle can explain it. The hydrologic cycle is the process wherein water can move around the world through different means and process. The hydrologic cycle is essentially a water continuum, showing the different paths through which water circulates and is transformed into water. First, the heat from the sun causes the water on oceans, ponds, rivers or other sources of water to evaporate. Then that water turns into its gaseous form which will go up to the clouds as water vapor. The atmospheric moisture (water vapor) is eventually returned through the form of rain or snow which is called surface water. This water can be collected from a special area called a catchment. The catchment feeds water into a holding area via rivers, streams and creeks. The water is then stored in a natural or artificial (manmade) barrier called a
Water has three stages—liquid, gas and solid. Water on Earth can be liquid as rain, streams, or oceans. It can be a solid like hail, ice or snow. It can be a gas like vapor, steam or clouds. As described by the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (2010), the hydrologic cycle is the process of water changing from liquid to gas to solid. The energy of the sun drives the changes to water. When water is heated up, it evaporates, turning into a gas to form steam or vapor. The water vapor rises with warm air that when meets cooler air, condenses to form clouds. These clouds and water vapor can be transported around the world. Precipitation is when water falls to Earth, in warmer temperatures as liquid and in temperatures, as a solid. On Earth, precipitation can evaporate again or infiltrate the Earth to become groundwater. As ground water it can collect in oceans, rivers or on snowy mountaintops and glaciers. It can also be released back into the atmosphere via transpiration, when water evaporates off soil, trees. When water evaporates, the cycle starts again.
It’s no mystery that having clean water is a fundamental element to living in a prosperous society and one of the few things essential for human survival. Water not only sustains our health, but is required in making everything from electronics to clothes. Clean water may seem as ordinary as putting on your shoes, but it’s a daily party of our life that’s being threatened.
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”).
Since fresh pure sea water is not readily accessible, the easiest water source for the majority of hobbyists is the faucet. However, the tap water that comes from the local water treatment plants may be safe for human consumption but is most likely toxic to marine life. Water treatment plants remove most of the harmful chemicals, but the water delivered is anything but pure. Often this tap water contains high levels of phosphates and nitrates that can be harmful to aquarium inhabitants. Also, copper may leach from pipes, and it is deadly to marine invertebrates (Goldstein 8). This leaves very few options for water to the hobbyist. One of the last, and probably the best option for obtaining a pure water source is by using reverse osmosis water.
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.
Water has importance inside cells and outside. This may be because of its chemical and physical properties; it can be found naturally in all three of its states. At room temperature water is in a liquid state, It boils at 100ºC and freezes at 0ºC. However its molecules are bonded together by hydrogen bonds, this raises it's melting and boiling points, e.g. its boiling point would be -120ºC rather than 100ºC. Water can also be used as a solvent because of it polarity. Many things will dissolve in it, and more reactions take place while in solution with water.
“Round and Round the Water Cycle” by Barbara A. Bradley is a great read about teaching the water cycle to K-2 elementary school students. She talked about how the water cycle is important to teach student at a young age because it helps them have a more sophisticated understanding later on in their school. In Bradley’s article, she lays out a ten-day unit on the water cycle, including pictures, diagrams, resources, and Ms. Bey’s (the teacher who conducted the lesson) findings when doing the lesson with her students. Ms. Bey went through the four components of the water cycle in those ten days. She had her students keep a science journal and write about their findings when they discussed evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. Throughout the lesson that was taught, the students where asked questions, asked their own questions, and recorded everything in their journals. The students were also introduced to new vocabulary and learned what the new vocabulary meant through books and science experiments
Water is the most important substance in our evolution and our daily lives. Without water,
Water is one of the most essential non-renewable natural resources on the Earth. Technically, an un-hydrated human being can live no more than three days. In the United States, people consume water mainly from tap water and bottled water. However, the consumption between these two sources is not even, but lean to one side heavily. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, people consume from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon of bottled water than they usually do for tap water.
Having clean water to drink means that water must have microbial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet WHO guidelines or national standards on drinking water quality. Around 780 million people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water (Millions Lack Safe Water). More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in developing countries. Around the world, diseases in unclean water kill about 1,400 children every day (Clean Drinking Water). There are many organizations that raise money in order to help develop ways or create ways for people to obtain clean drinking water. However, many people are unaware that this is even a problem in other countries because we take clean water for granted.
Drinking water is sourced from bodies of freshwater. Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waste for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water available to humans.
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.
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 ...
Water is our main source of our life. We need it to live, drink, bathe,
Water is an irreplaceable natural resource on this earth which comprises marine, estuarine, fresh water (river and lakes), ground water across coastal and inland areas. Even though there is huge water resource in this world, about 97% of water is salt water (marine) only 3% is fresh water. And in this small fraction of fresh water a major part is in the form of ice in polar region. So just 0.003% is in the form of ground water and surface water which we can use.