Hard and soft water
Water is one of the most important substances known to chemistry. It is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, and is essential for all life forms that are known at the moment. Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, mostly in form of oceans and seas. A lot of water can also be found below ground, as a vapor in the air, in forms of polar ice caps and in glaciers. It is also interesting to mention that water has also been found in many places beyond our planet. For example, the atmosphere of Mercury contains around 3% of water vapor. Water in form of ice has been found on the Moon and also on Mars, Titan, Enceladus and Europa. Many comets also have certain amounts of water.
As already mentioned, clean and fresh drinking water is essential to human and all other life forms known at the moment. There are various types of water classifications, one of them mentions two basic types of water: soft and hard water.
Hard water is water that has a relatively high mineral content (mainly magnesium and calcium ions). Hard water can sometimes also contain other types of ions, like bicarbonates and sulfates. A fairly simple experiment that can show one if the water is hard or soft, can be done with the help of some soap or toothpaste. These two substances, when agitated, lather easily in soft water, but not in hard water.
On the other hand, soft water contains few or no magnesium or calcium ions. Soft water mostly comes from peat or igneous rock sources, such as granite, since on such locations, the content of magnesium and calcium minerals and, thereby, ions as well, is low, and because of that, very little of the mentioned ions can be found in water that comes from such sources.
Water also has many other interesting properties. If one is interested in finding out even more about the chemical side of water, it’s always a good idea to start with some of the basic chemistry tutorials.
