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Water Facts
Courtesy AWWA
Water is the most common compound on earth, the fluid that all life depends upon. It's the one liquid humans must have to live.
The average person can go nearly two months without eating but less than a week without water could kill you.
Yet, important as water is, most of us know little about it.
Take this test and see how much you know about water.
1. What percentage of the world is covered by water?
2. What percentage of the world's water is readily available for humans to use?
3. How much water is contained in the human body?
4. Which contains more water as a percentage of body weight, a woman's or a man's body?
5. Why do male and female bodies tend to have different amounts of water?
6. How much water does the human body lose in a typical day?
7. Why is water especially good for people on a diet?
8. What is the largest use of water... indoors? outdoors?
9. Public water systems produce billions of gallons of drinking water every day, more than 180 gallons per person. What percentage of that does people consume?
Answers:
1. Some 80% of the world is covered by water or ice. Only about 20% is dry land.
2. 97% of the water on earth is salty ocean and 2% is frozen. The remaining 1% is available to meet human needs.
3. If you're an adult, your body contains about 40 quarts or 10 gallons of water.
4. A man's body is 60-65% water. A woman's is 50-60% water. The human brain is about 75% water.
5. Muscle tissue contains a large amount of water. Fat tissues contain virtually no water. Men tend to have more muscle as a percentage of body weight while women have more fat.
6. You lose 2.5 to 3 quarts of water per day through normal elimination, sweating and breathing. If you exercise or live in a humid climate, you may lose another quarter.
7. It has zero calories and zero sugar, but a good drink of water can reduce hunger. Water also helps your body metabolize stored fats, helps maintain proper muscle tone, and helps rid the body of wastes.
8. Lawn sprinkling uses the most water outdoors. Inside, toilets use the most, with an average of 27 gallons per person per day. Laundry averages 17 gallons per person per day and showers 14 gallons.
9. Typically, less than 1% of the treated drinking water produced by utilities is actually consumed by people. Most goes for lawns, showers and tubs, toilets, etc.
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