In this episode of Let's Dive In, RTÉjr Radio science show, Julie and Phil can actually dive into this topic with Phil's Dad, Brian, to talk about how drinking water makes it to our taps.
Our question for this episode comes from 6-year old Rosa - "How many different types of water are there?"
Tune into RTÉjr Radio at 7pm this evening or press play above now!
Julie explains it all here and has a fun experiment too...
It turns out, this question is not as straightforward as it first appeared to us. Phil and I both thought, well, there’s only one type of water. The word, water, isn’t a collective term like the word food is for the things we eat.
But when we asked the kids how many different kinds of water there were, it was incredibly obvious to them that there was more than just, well, water.
The expert we asked to help sort this all out was Phil’s dad, aka Brian Smyth. He’s an engineer that has spent his career working with Irish water. And in this episode he takes us on a journey from how the water goes from rivers and lakes (both on the ground and under the ground!) and comes out of our taps.
On the journey we learn how water is cleaned in water treatment plants with physical, biological and chemical processes (one of which involves trout - but not for fishing!) and using sand and gravel to clean water - something that you could try at home with your very own filter system.
What you’ll need:
- 1 plastic cup with a hole in the bottom (get a grown up to help with this if you need it)
- 3 coffee filters
- Sand
- Gravel
- Dirty water - this could be from your local pond, or you can make it at home by adding mud, dirt and leaves from the garden into some tap water!
What you need to do:
- Place the 3 coffee filters into the plastic cup with the hole in it.
- Put in layers of sand and gravel - which one do you think needs to go on the bottom? (think about the size of the grains of sand versus the gravel rocks and what they will stop going through the filter)
- Put the plastic cup with your filters on top of a glass jar/cup
- Divide your dirty water equally into the other two glass jars/cups and put one aside for comparison later
- Now pour your dirty water from one cup over the filter and watch the water pour through the bottom.
What do you notice?
!!DO NOT DRINK THE WATER!!
Do not drink the water that comes out of the filter!
What you've made is a physical process water filter, but it doesn’t do any of the chemical process water filtering that goes on in the water treatment plants that clean our drinking water!
So, how does the filter work?
Well, the larger gravel bits filter out larger bits of dirt because it can’t pass through them. And the smaller sand bits filter out all the small bits of dirt.
The filter papers then try to trap any remaining bits of dirt before the water pours through!
We also talk to Phil’s dad about how, in different parts of the world people treat water differently. Tune in and find out!
Make sure to subscribe HERE or wherever you get your podcasts!
AND read all the Let's Dive In articles with experiments to try at home HERE!
