How pure is our water?

1. Give five sources of water.

2. What may water contain, in addition to pollutants, before it is purified?

3. Give three example of pollutants in drinking water.

4. Three steps are involved in the purification of water.

a) Why is sedimentation the first step?

b) Which step kills microbes present in water?

c) What substance is used to filter out very small particles?

d) Why does water sometimes need even further purification after this process?

5. Why don’t we use sea water for drinking water?

6. How does agriculture affect water purity?

7. Clean water is essential to health.

a) What disease can cause many deaths when a community only has dirty water?

b) How can water be treated simply in order to purify it enough for people to drink it?

8. Water is a renewable resource, but how can the demand for it cause problems?

Testing for impurities

9. Precipitation reactions can be used to detect and identify ions in water.

a) What is a precipitation reaction?

b) Adding a few drops of silver nitrate to a sample of water produces a cream precipitate.

i) What ion must be present in the water?

ii) What is the name of the precipitate formed?

iii) Give the word equation for the precipitation reaction…

iv) …and the balanced symbol equation.

10. a) What two chemicals will give a white precipitate if sulphate ions are present?

b) What is the white precipitate formed in each case?

11. Give i) the word and ii) the symbol equation for:

a) a reaction that gives a yellow precipitate

b) a reaction that tests for the presence of chloride ions

12. What would you expect to see if you added…

a) lead nitrate to a solution containing potassium sulphate?

b) silver nitrate to a solution containing sodium bromide?

c) barium chloride to a solution containing calcium iodide?