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The Hardness Of Water Hardness Essay

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71%, that’s how much of our Earth is covered by water. Due to such abundance, water has become a crucial aspect of every day life: whether is be powering dams, quenching thirsts, or fueling industries like the agricultural one. Despite it’s mundane appearance, water has many characteristics. One of the more important ones, and the one focused on in this particular lab, was the hardness of water. Water hardness is the amount of divalent metal cations, calcium and magnesium ions specifically, that have dissolved in water. As the concentrations of the calcium and magnesium ions increase, the hardness of the water also increases.1 Water hardness isn’t necessarily harmful to anyone’s health; yet it’s important to consider hardness because of its impact on various industries around the world. Very hard water has been known to cause the buildup of minerals in fixtures, plumbing pipes, water heaters, etc. In addition hard water has been known to minimize the efficiency of many hand soaps and washer detergents. As a result, residue tends to build up and can leave a layer of the minerals on whatever is being washed. Nonetheless, water hardness does have some advantages to it. Calcium and Magnesium are minerals in which people need in order to remain healthy. It’s also these minerals that help give water a invigorating flavor that a lot of people want.(1,2) Water hardness is more commonly measure in parts per million (PPM) of Calcium Carbonate and grains per gallons, yet for our

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