WATER FACTS OF LIFE
Celebrate with these fun facts.
- Water that is safe to drink is called potable (pronounced po ta-bal).
- It costs over $3.5 billion to operate water systems throughout the United States each year.
- Groundwater is water that sinks into the upper portion of the earth's surface.
- One ear of corn is 80% water.
- It takes 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car and it's four tires.
- For the price of a single can of soda -- an average 50 cents -- many communities deliver up to 1,000 gallons of fresh, clean drinking water to homes.
- Each year, nearly 10,000 cubic miles of water flows along the world's rivers to the oceans.
- Public water suppliers in the US process nearly 34 billion gallons of water per day for domestic and public use.
- On average, 50% - 70% of household water is used outdoors for watering lawns and gardens.
- Americans drink more than 1 billion glasses of tap water per day.
- There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank.
- Water
is composed of two elements, Hydrogen and Oxygen.
2 Hydrogen + 1 Oxygen = H2O. - Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all humanity's needs - all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing community, and personal needs.
- Water regulates the Earth's temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes.
- 75% of the human brain is water and 75% of a living tree is water.
- A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
- Water is part of a deeply interconnected system. What we pour on the ground ends up in our water, and what we spew into the sky ends up in our water.
- The average total home water use for each person in the U.S. is about 50 gallons a day.
- The average cost for water supplied to a home in the U.S. is about $2.00 for 1,000 gallons, which equals about 5 gallons for a penny.
- Water expands by 9 percent when it freezes. Frozen water (ice) is lighter than water, which is why ice floats in water.
If you have any questions which are not addressed through this web site, please email sonia.harvat@nashville.gov.