Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm in 7th grade. I'm doing a project on Water filtration. I came across something unfamiliar. Is there any advice on how to find bacteria and/or disolved solids? Thank you very much for any advice!

Try putting "disolved solids" into your favorite search engine as a first step. You should get lots of hits.

What kinds of disolved solids are you trying to filter out? Is it something like mud that a mechanical filter will work on or is it disolved salts or other chemicals?

Try putting "Discovery of Bacteria" into your favorite search engine and you will find out who discovered bacteria and how. The same equipment can be used today to see bacteria and other organisms in acqueous solutions today.

Caution: You need to be very careful in your choice of water to work and how you work with it so you don't pose a health risk. Working with water that has been tested as safe for swimming by a local public health department poses far less risk than working with unknown samples.

Thank you so much! ^-^

Way to go, kid! We need more people like you...

There must be some sort of solution or kit that can be easily acquired at a Water treatment plant. Try calling local water companies or treatment plants in your community. These people obviously need to test the local water supply many many times a week. So local water companies and plants must have a system, solution, or kit to test for "dissolved" substances or whatever you are proposing to be in the water.

Hi!
so there are various different types of filters. For example, there are carbon filters, coarse filters, fine filters, etc. Based on the size of the bacteria particles, there should be a corresponding filter. Some coarse filters will pick up particles 10 microns or bigger and fine filters may be able to pick up particles around 1 micron big. This website might be helpful in giving you an idea of what the filter might look like and other product information:
http://www.thewaterexchange.net/bacteri ... ilters.htm
Good luck!

I'm a 7th grader and I am doing a proust on water filtration. What effects do charcoal, sand, and gravel have on dirty water?

cjanki13 wrote:I'm a 7th grader and I am doing a proust on water filtration. What effects do charcoal, sand, and gravel have on dirty water?

Hey there! You have picked a very ambitious project! Well done.

I would be happy to help answer your question. (*Please note with my walk through that this not the complete project procedure. I encourage you to visit: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p030.shtml for all of the specifics on this project, and read as well how you can be safe in the process)

Let's pretend that we have a glass of water from the bottom of the pond, and want to end up with clean (again, please visit the website for a water that is not just clean looking, but clear of nasty particulates), filtered water? Our water appears to have floating algae, some twigs, some silt, and we are sure tons of bacteria and microbes. How could we do that using a filtration system with charcoal, sand, and gravel?

We pour our water into a second container that has a layer of each of these things: First, think about the size of gravel that has many rocks and pebbles. What would that help stop in our 'dirty water' from getting into our next layer? Now, think about sand granules. What size are they? What could they help stop from getting into the third layer? Last, ground up charcoal. What would the size of that look like? And what other properties does charcoal have that can help start the process of killing water contaminates like bacteria?

If you need a more daily real life application on how this works smaller level...think about a coffee maker. How is it that when adults make coffee they don't end up with all of the grounds in the cup?

I hope this helps, while leaving tons of unanswered questions for you to discover!!

Elizabeth