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Water Use in the Home
- How much water does the average American use each day for household activities?
- Eighty percent of the earth's surface is water. This amounts to how many gallons?
- People can live longer without food than they can live without water. True or false?
- Name an animal that doesn't drink water.
- Popular bottled waters have no minerals in them. True or false?
- The ancient Romans built aqueducts to bring fresh water from the mountains to the city. They are still in use. True or false?
- Fluoride occurs naturally in some water sources. True or false?
- On the average, how many inches of snow equal one inch of water?
- Everything we eat uses water. How much water does the typical American meal "cost" ?
- In water treatment, chlorine is used for: ?
This material was excerpted from the educational booklet "Groundwater" by Kendra S Johncock, George
Williams College Resident Outdoor Program, Williams Bay, Wl 53191
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| Water Wisdom Answers
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- The average American uses about 70 gallons of water each day for dishwashing bathing, lawn care, etc.
- The water on the earth’s surface totals about 362 trillion gallons. Only one percent is the freshwater that we use for drinking. The rest is salt water (97%) and glacier ice (2%).
- True. People may live without food for two months, but would probably die in less than a week without water.
- The desert rat and koala bear are two animals that get their liquid from the food they eat (koala means no water). Although they don't actually drink, they still need water from their food.
- False. Only distilled water has no minerals. Other bottled water has a variety of minerals and salts in them.
- True. Some of the ancient Roman aqueducts are still is use. One aqueduct, 16 miles in length, has operated without a break except for one repair made in 1926.
- True. Fluorides do occur naturally in water. In areas where fluoride does occur naturally, it was found that children had less cavities. This is how scientists came to realize what fluoride does, and encouraged that it be added to drinking water in areas where fluoride does not occur naturally.
- Approximately ten inches of snow equals one inch of water.
- It could easily cost between 500 and 2000 gallons of water to- produce a typical American meal. For example, it takes 408 gallons
of water to get a serving of chicken to the table, 12 gallons for a baked potato, 18 gallons for a serving of green beans, and 6
gallons for a salad. On average, it takes about 1,630,000 gallons of water to feed one American for a year.
- Chlorine is used to disinfect water. Since the adoption of chlorine in our drinking water, diseases such as typhoid and cholera have all but disappeared. The disinfection of water has saved more lives than all the doctors and hospitals in the world.
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