Students will conclude that while all water samples look the same to the naked eye there is something different in each one that prevents soap from working the same in each sample. Students will discuss the nature, cause and effect of hard water. Each student will conduct a soap test on a sample of hard water where the hardness is known measuring the height of the bubbles produced. Students will conduct a soap test on an unknown sample of tap and attempt to ascertain its approximate hardness. Not all water is created equally.
Water has the unique ability to dissolve a wide variety of materials.
Some Industries can not use water with materials that may be present naturally because they would cause adverse effects to the machinery of the facility, the product,or the environment. A power plant is an example in point. The presence of such dissolved solids as Magnesium, iron, calcium and others require the power company to expend more energy than normal to raise water to its boiling point. In addition to energy waste these materials can quickly lead to a mechanical hardening of the arteries as they precipitate out inside steam tubes. People are also affected by this problem.