80
votes
Accepted
Does anybody spend 6 hours each day just to get water?
Aysha does, actually more than six hours, says UNICEF:
How Long Does It Take to Get Water? For Aysha, Eight Hours a Day
Worldwide, women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours — every day ...
- 43.4k
49
votes
Can the molecular bond angle of water be changed via distillation?
The linked site mentions that this has been validated by the USPTO. Not true. John Ellis has a few patents on distillers that do not mention hydrogen bonds (from USPTO patent search site with search ...
- 1,180
45
votes
Accepted
Has it ever rained fish?
Yes.
As published in "Do Fish Fall from the Sky?" Science vol. 109 page 402,
On October 23, 1947, biologist Alexander Dimitrivitch Bajkov, PhD was eating breakfast with his wife at a ...
- 98.2k
35
votes
Can the molecular bond angle of water be changed via distillation?
There is a lot to unpack from that site; the majority of it seems to have little basis in reality. The short answer is that you cannot permanently change the hydrogen bond angle (104.5°) in water.
...
- 451
28
votes
In California, is water from the north diverted into the Pacific Ocean?
Not an authoritative source , just a blogger, but a decent attempt to explain some of the cali water issues that's reasonably well sourced itself.
California receives a total of 80 million acre-...
- 9,406
26
votes
Does one hamburger take more water to produce than 2 months worth of showering?
I'm going to assume a quarter pound (113 g) burger with no cheese or other added feature. This being the case the bread can be neglected as the water-cost of beef is going to dominate. I'm also ...
18
votes
Accepted
Is urine the cause of redness of eyes (in swimming pools)?
Yes, it is to a large extent.
This paper by Lian et al. explores the formation of volatile chlorinated compounds that are formed from reactions with organic nitrogen compounds, such as urea, amino ...
- 18.5k
18
votes
Accepted
Can you extract over 500 gallons of water from the air a day for a few cents per bottle?
Can you extract over 500 gallons of water from the air a day for a few cents per bottle?
Well, first, the "500 gallons" part is an irrelevant distraction. If there's a machine that can extract 1 ...
- 2,723
18
votes
Accepted
Does a vortex vessel affect water in these specific ways?
The nature of the device
First of all a clarification.
Their product, a jug which causes a vortex:
is not a jug alone and the jug doesn't cause a vortex. This a magnetic stirrer. These devices ...
- 43.4k
16
votes
Is there a place in the world where two oceans meet and they don't mix?
To answer your question, "Is there a place in the world where two oceans meet and they don't mix?" No, the water mixes it just isn't instantaneous. Saline, temperature differences, and pollutants can ...
- 1,278
15
votes
Accepted
Can magnets be used to clean laundry?
"To me this seems complete nonsense."
As it does to anyone that looks any further than the company's own advertising.
McGill University's Office for Science and Society ("Separating Sense from ...
- 1,561
14
votes
Is water from a sink different from water from a water fountain?
Since the question refers to a college campus in the USA, I will quote information from UC Berkley.
DO NOT GENERALIZE TO OUTSIDE THE USA.
[Question] The only tap water source available to me is the ...
- 98.2k
14
votes
Can anything be 'more hydrating than water'?
Question: Can anything be more hydrating than plain water?
Short answer:
Yes, fluids that contain certain amount of sugars and sodium can be more hydrating than plain water, which can be beneficial ...
- 4,939
14
votes
Does drinking water after eating watermelon cause cholera?
According to Wikipedia:
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
Thus, if a watermelon or any water contains that bacterium, you will get cholera ...
- 3,047
13
votes
Do the plastic shade balls in Los Angeles leach chemicals into water?
The claim that plastic shade balls used in the LA reservoir leach chemicals into drinking water can be denied based on the following points.
The shade balls are coated in carbon black, a food-safe ...
- 22.5k
12
votes
Accepted
Can boiling water break car windows?
When chipped: definitely
The key to answering the question is here:
Mr Carter also warned motorists of the danger of existing chips in the windscreen.
"A seemingly insignificant chip in the ...
- 11k
12
votes
Accepted
Can someone survive being swallowed by a whale?
Snopes rates this claim as false.
"Did the man claim to be swallowed by a whale?" No.
The article features the image of shirtless man that is claimed to be the fisherman, Luigi Marquez — but it ...
- 12k
11
votes
Accepted
Does drinking coffee or tea dehydrate you?
There is no convincing evidence that consumption of caffeine or tea leads to dehydration (fluid loss) based on available research. Studies cited below indicate (a) that caffeine is a not a very ...
- 22.5k
11
votes
Does increasing water intake during a diet help with weight loss?
There's some evidence that drinking a large amount before eating a meal will help because it makes you feel more full, thus leading to eating less food, but sipping it during your meal doesn't help ...
- 5,926
11
votes
Accepted
In the U.S., is more water used for electric generation, and more electricity used for water infrastucture, than anything else?
No, the claim is faulty on both parts
Using the US Geological Survey report on Estimated use of water in the United States in 2015, we quickly see that the original claim that thermoelectrical power-...
- 11k
10
votes
Accepted
Can Waterseer extract as much as 37 L per day from the air?
I can't give a complete answer.That would require original research and/or actually testing a unit for an extended period of time.
But some of the statements on that page aren't correct and weaken ...
- 9,406
9
votes
Does it take 20000 L of water to produce 1 kg of cotton and 130 L to produce 1 cup of coffee?
I get about:
coffee: 80 liters per cup
cotton: 10000 liters per kg
The differences could be due to the original calculation including run off pollutants. But the numbers are actually pretty close for ...
- 2,005
9
votes
Does drinking distilled water remove needed minerals from your body?
In summary:
The available evidence suggests:
Drinking distilled water in usual amounts in everyday life, which includes regular meals, does not likely remove needed minerals from the human body in ...
- 4,939
9
votes
Is watering plants under a hot sun bad?
There was a joint Hungarian-German study on the subject led by Dr. Gábor Horváth at Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary.
A team of physicists, troubled by the lack of scientific evidence for the ...
- 191
9
votes
Accepted
Does atmospheric water contain minerals?
Yes, atmospheric water does contain small amounts of elements and minerals, and the types and amounts of minerals vary based on location. Unfortunately, since Scalene Aquaria's claim doesn't seem to ...
- 11.4k
8
votes
Does dowsing (aka Water Divining) work?
Simply put, no. Dowsing (or Souciering) is no more effective than just guessing. Those who have shown better success are using other methods (like cheating) to pad their results.
The Committee for ...
- 44.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Water swirl according to hemisphere: video
The video is likely fake.
Watch closely how he pours the bucket. We don't see him pour it the first time. However, the second time, he pours it into the left side of the sink (from his perspective)....
- 1,171
8
votes
Accepted
Does cold water boil faster than hot water?
No, according to Scientific American - Is it true that hot water freezes faster than cold water or that cold water boils faster than hot water? It seems hard to believe, but some people swear that it ...
- 3,854
7
votes
Does boiling water with solid silver kill germs?
This World Health Orgainization report explores silver as a water disinfectant. It kills a wide variety of bacteria, and fungi without leaving a residue or many chemicals in the water.
Silver has ...
- 12k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible