Friends!,
(This OP is a follow-on to my recent VINEGAR Post. I have chosen to post this OP in the Pub because I have written this post specifically for my friends in the Pub, as if I were actually IN a Pub in the UK, preferably either in an Irish Pub or in a Pub in Scotland (either one would be so wonderful). However, this does not mean that this OP could not also be successfully posted in the CM Forum, because this is a serious Post about Hard Water in the ‘burbs of CM, as I have personally experienced it. And, for sure, anyone living in CM is welcome to access this Post if they so choose, and if they might have the time to read this Post. So, you guys living in CM are definitely welcome to read along. And, to you friends who have recently left BKK to resume your life in Dublin, I hope to visit you one of these days, and taste a Guinness in an Irish Pub, maybe even John Kavanagh's Pub, “The Gravediggers,” in Dublin. Man, I can just taste the creamy-rich NITROGEN CAP of the Guinness, now! Please don’t SLURP your Guinness, Guys, and spoil that head!)
AA. Before we go ahead with the following discussion of Chemistry, how many years has it been since your last Inorganic-Chemistry-Uni Class? In my case, it’s been awhile (48 years). This long nonusage and nonapplication of my chemistry knowledge has caused me much Brain Fog in my Chemistry Department, upstairs, so unfortunately.
Be that as it may, I have suddenly experienced a renewed interest in Chemistry after I began noticing my water taps falling off the water pipes, not to mention spontaneous water leaks from even unused taps. Additionally, I am now plagued by a white film on my glassware, and white mineral deposits over almost everything, not unlike a newly-fallen snow. My water heater casing has turned white. Even my reading spectacles have turned white. And, the tiles in the bathroom are white when they should be “a shade of pale” brown with beautifully inlaid designs in darker brown.
I like the aesthetics of a beautifully tiled bathroom, and this minerally white film covering everything is becoming depressing, and how could it be otherwise?
I, as you, spend a lot of time showering in this hot clime, sometimes thrice a day, and so the aesthetics of bathroom tiles is important to me. I don’t have a GF to shower with me, as I once did, and consequently, these days, I spend much time focusing on brown bathroom tiles instead of the dark bush.
I have been told that I live in an area of CM which is famous for its hard water. And, in my case, I might even be using groundwater, which, by the way, seems rather evident to me now.
One potential solution might be shifting to a city-supplied water source, which I would like to do if the city water company would connect me for free. I will look into that. Logically, if one is located very close to the road, then should this water-connection installation to city water not be provided for free? Who knows, really?
Hard water, it seems to me, is costing me money on paying for degrading appliances. And, living with hard water, year after year, is no fun.
But even if I did connect to the city-water supply, might the hard water problem still persist, even if to a lesser degree? This is just a known unknown that is unlikely to be answered in this Post. This Post is about Hard Water found either in groundwater in the ‘burb of CM, or, potentially, Hard Water as might or might not be supplied from a city’s water supply (and I have no information about the city’s water supply).
BB. I have searched the Internet for the simplest discussion of the chemistry of Hard Water and, for our purposes, let’s use the easy-to-understand information provided by “LibreTexts”: “LibreTexts (formerly called STEMHyperlibrary[1] and ChemWiki[2]) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit[3] online educational resource project. The project provides open access to its content on its website, and the site is built on the Mindtouch platform.[4] LibreTexts was started in 2008 by Professor Delmar Larsen at the University of California Davis and has since expanded to 400 texts in 154 courses (as of 2018), making it one of the largest and most visited online educational resources.[5] LibreTexts currently has 13 library disciplines.”, (Wikipedia).
My hat’s off to the guys at LibreTexts, and I hope that you will, if need be, recommend this open-source resource to any good STEM students you happen to meet.
I like it when TEXTBOOKS, and textbook-quality material, is offered to students for FREE. And so, let it be known that there are also other sites/orgs which publish FREE textbooks of very high quality written by dynamite profs and researchers, just because they believe that TEXTBOOKS should be FREE for all God’s little children around the world. I am a FIRM believer in this concept. Knowledge must be set FREE, as in free like Butterflies, to flit around our world helping children of all ages, and of ALL colors, to get a good education. Only then shall we ALL be free to live in peace and harmony.
CC. So then, Hard Water: What is it? What is the Chemistry of Hard Water? What Damage Can It Do?
(Of course, I will NOT be quoting here the full text of this short LibreText article. Please click on the following link to the article, and read the full text yourselves. Thank you.)
Quoting from the article “Hard Water”, available on LibreText… (https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Supplemental_Modules_and_Websites_(Inorganic_Chemistry)/Descriptive_Chemistry/Main_Group_Reactions/Hard_Water) :
What is Hard Water?
“Hard water contains high amounts of minerals in the form of ions, especially the metals calcium and magnesium, which can precipitate out and cause problems in water conducting or storing vessels like pipes. Hard water can be distinguished from other types of water by its metallic, dry taste and the dry feeling it leaves on skin. It is responsible for the scum rings seen in bathtubs, as well as the inability of soap to lather.”
What kinds of Hard Water might there be?
Temporary Hard Water:
“Temporary hard water is hard water that consists primarily of calcium (Ca2+) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) ions. Heating causes the bicarbonate ion in temporary hard water to decompose into carbonate ion (CO32-), carbon dioxide (CO2), and water (H2O). The resultant carbonate ion (CO32-) can then react with other ions in the solution to form insoluble compounds, such as CaCO3 and MgCO3. The interactions of carbonate ion in the solution also cause the well-known mineral build-up seen on the sides of pots used to boil water, a rust known as ‘boiler scale.’”
Permanent Hard Water:
“Permanent hard water consists of high concentrations of anions, like the sulfate anion (SO42-). This type of hard water is referred to as "permanent" because, unlike temporary hard water, the hardness cannot be removed simply by boiling the water and thereby precipitating out the mineral ions.”
What is some of the CHEMISTRY of Hard Water?:
Please refer to the original LibreText article I linked above. The Chemistry of Hard Water is very, VERY simple, in fact, and interesting, and also rather fun to read.
Here are just a few chemical equations for you to consider. Also, for our purposes, I really think you would do best to brush up on what a “chemical equilibrium” means in terms of a chemical reaction. Anytime you see some strange arrows in a written ‘chemical reaction’, like this “⇌”, then just remember the word EQUILIBRIUM. Chemistry is really not that hard.
Also, please bear with me, I am not sure how to use LaTeX commands using the TV Forum editor. Sure, I know that it IS possible to use LaTeX commands on TV, but I am, besides being rusty on Chemistry, also rusty at LaTeX, too!
Therefore, I will just add an image of only one chemical equation to whet your appetite, and then you can refer to the entire short quoted article to get the BIG Picture.
You know, in all my born days, this is really my first experience encountering Hard Water, and this has been a real eye-opener for me. I’m thinking, why should I buy the best quality appliances if, just through a bit of soaking in Hard Water, they get eaten to bits by a few ions?
And, I REALLY wish I were connected to the City Water Supply (if I am not already partially connected already), because I had NEVER experienced difficulties when I was connected. My experience with CM water has been GREAT!!! Yes, Great! In the past, I always just drank from the tap, no boiling, and never did I get sick once…which reminds me of that old song, Wooden Ships..On The Water…Very Free…and those Purple Berries, etc. Thoughtfully speaking, wooden ships would be better than metal ships, in this case, anyway.
So then, Guys, I truly hope that you will appreciate and benefit from the LibreText article that I linked above. Undeniably, it’s a HUMDINGER for guys who might have only a smattering of Chemistry knowledge, or for those who may have forgotten 98.6 percent of their Chemistry book learning, as have I.
Chemistry is such a boon to Mankind, and we could not live our lives, at least our lives in these Modern Times (and my hat is off, again, to Charlie Chaplin, such an amazing guy) without our reliance, every second of our days, on the Miracles of Modern Chemistry. So, I just wanted to give a Shout Out to our Career Chemists around the world who give us such good things.
I hope you find the linked LibreText article of use to you, because I KNOW that you will.
Regards,
Gamma (Glob) Globulin
Please Note: I am able to say with an 85.5 percent certainty that 95 percent of readers here will find the linked LibreText “Hard Water” article very useful.
Note2: These days, besides my plan to learn more about Hard Water, I also plan on brushing up on my LaTeX skills, just to stay more in equilibrium, so to speak.
Navigating through life, we must have BOTH Faith and Science.
Without BOTH Faith and Science at our disposal, we would find it IMPOSSIBLE to navigate through our daily lives. Every time we take a drink of water, we have FAITH that the water will be as we expect it to be. Likewise, every time we climb the stairs, we must have FAITH that the termites have not eaten out the understructure of the staircase, or that the balustrades are still glued on tight.
Similarly, although we must have FAITH in such things, we also must have Science to do the testing which provides us with the necessary assurance that we rely upon, as well as our experience which contributes to our FAITH in our senses. I am sure you know what I am driving at.
Obviously, here it is time for our discussion of NAIVE REALISM as it applies to Faith, Science, and Drinking Water—
Although we must have FAITH in such things, we also must have Science to do the testing which needs to be done in cases where we cannot rely on our experience to guide us in our FAITH.
Without Faith that our physical world is as we expect it to be, we could not leave our homes.
During the past many decades, I have been walking on solid ground, having FAITH that the ground beneath me would not give way with every new step, or that I might fall into a rabbit hole, like Alice.
Similarly, every time I pour a glass of drinking water, and then take a swallow, I never feel the need to test the water, from swallow to swallow. Do you get my drift? For example, I know that the first swallow was good, and therefore the second swallow, just based on FAITH alone, must, ALSO, be good. I need not test the glass of water, for EVERY sip, once I have already tasted the first sip. See what I mean? THIS is TRUE FAITH, my friends. And so, as you can plainly see, we ALL rely on FAITH to go about our mundane lives.
So anyway, being as old as I am, I now forget who it was that first sort of FORMALIZED this observation. Anybody know? (I would be happy to pay you two cents to put my mind at ease about this.) Because the inability to recollect something this simple, at my age, is driving me mad....
Is driving me mad: (https://youtu.be/tAe2Q_LhY8g) Turn up the volume…..! HEAVY!
My guess is that you might think about something like NAIVE REALISM, or something, but not actually be able to verbalize its impact upon our daily lives. But, in my opinion, Naive Realism does not fully encapsulate my meaning about Faith, Science, and Drinking Water.
Important Addendum: None of the text, nor thoughts contained in this Post, was generated by a Large Language Model (LLM).
AND NOW: A Shout Out! to all you glib Irish and Scottish lads with Silver Tongues!!! You guys from Ireland, I have envied your gift of gab throughout my entire life. And, as for being glib, anytime one is TOO Sincere, something is clearly wrong! (Please save me a pint of the REAL GUINNESS when I finally arrive in the Promised Land of Dublin, Ireland! I will be happy as a clam. Thanks, PETE, for your wonderful, always-respectful, interesting, and polite vlog on UTUBE!!!! (I guess, almost NOBODY can be as polite as my Irish friends, when they want to be.) May you never lack a pint of Guinness when you need one, nor the hot, clean water to have a bath when you might desire one, also. (Pete is a great guy. You guys should watch his UTUBE channel. He comes from a wonderful family. He is ALWAYS upbeat, and not just after a few pints, either.)
(If you might not know who PETE may be, he is a guy from Dublin who spent a few years in BKK, Thailand, only to return with his Thai bride, where he is now setting up a new life in Joyce’s favorite city. Pete graduated from The University of London, although why he did not choose Trinity College Dublin, I will never know. I enjoy Pete’s UTUBE channel because he is full of respect and kindness for others, while still maintaining his wits about him.
Concerning this POST, I just hope that the above will provide enough grist for the TV mill which will enable even the most picky commenter to have something polite and useful to say in the comments below.
CHOK-DI, People!
Just one more thing: Even at my advanced age, there are still so many things I wish to learn. For example, I asked Bard concerning the maximum number of transistors he has ever used at any given moment. His answer, if one can even believe him, was: “I have never used any transistors.” Oh, really?
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SERIOUSLY, concerning this LaTeX issue which I mentioned several times in the OP: Does anyone here know whether or not the TV's text editor supports the use of LaTeX? What I mean is: Let's say you wanted to imbed a scientific formula or some exponents, for example...into your text...using LaTeX.... Then, surely, there MUST be a way to do so using the TV text editor, which, personally, I find exceptional. ALSO, just one more word of PRAISE from ME: I have NOTHING but GOOD to say about the beauty of the formatting on the TV forum. It really looks quite nice. AESTHETICS is crucial for true appreciation of this short life we are given. Without aesthetics, at least for me, life would not be worth living. What do I mean by using LaTeX to post here on TV, and why? Well, let's say that we wished to talk about Maxwell's Equations, for example. Then how would we do so without being able to even write an equation? Such as the flux of an electromagnetic field... This is not to say that anyone might wish to discuss Maxwell's Equations in the Pub, but still, they might. So... Anyone know how to use LaTeX on TV, as I requested this information in the Original Post. If not, then no harm done. Practically speaking, solving the Hard Water problem is Number 1 with me, anyway.
