You may know that water is the one resource we can’t live without, but there’s actually a whole lot more to water than you may suspect.
Even though water deserves celebration every day, we’ll take this occasion to give a shout-out to this incredible compound that gives us life and sustains our planet. Enjoy our fun water facts for kids – some weird, some wonderful, all eye-opening:
1. Earth is rich in water, and has been for a few billion years, but do you know where we got this life-sustaining liquid from? All the water on earth arrived in comets and asteroids – this happened approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago, during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment.
2. Since then, the amount of water on earth has stayed the same – which means the water from your tap could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank! – but how much is used has risen dramatically in the past 100 years.
3. About 70.9% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. The three largest oceans on Earth are the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Water in these oceans is known as seawater. On average, every kilogram of seawater contains around 35 grams of dissolved salt.
4. 97% of the water available on Earth is salty and undrinkable, leaving just 1% for all of humanity’s needs – its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs. In fact, only 0.03% of the world’s water is freshwater, which is found in rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, and swamps, while the rest is trapped in ice caps and glaciers, or is in the ground.
5. While most people know that water boils at 100°C, this is at the normal conditions of sea level. The boiling point of water actually changes relative to the barometric pressure. For instance, water boils at just 68°C on the top of Mount Everest, while water deep in the ocean near geothermal vents can remain in liquid form at temperatures much higher than 100°C.
6. The existence of water is essential for life on Earth. Drinking water is needed for humans to avoid dehydration, the amount you need each day depends on factors including the temperature and how much activity you are involved in. In theory, you could survive for about a month without food, but you couldn’t live for longer than a week without water.
7. Hydration is not the only reason why you should drink more water. Insufficient water consumption is actually a risk factor for various types of cancer. Hydration is critical to blood circulation to allow immune system cells to reach damaged tissues in greater numbers.
8. Water is so important to us because half of our own bodies are basically liquid. That’s right, the average human body contains 50 to 65% water; newborn babies are made of even more water, ringing in at 78% water!
Bonus fact: A jellyfish and a cucumber are each 95% water.
9. Water is also important in other parts of our lives. On average, a European resident uses about 230 litres of water per day. To put things into perspective, washing the dishes by hand uses an average of 20 litres, but doing one load of dishes in a good dishwasher will only use just over 18 litres. Likewise, a bath uses up to 320 litres of water, whereas a five-minute shower uses 45 to 115 litres.
10. If you think that’s all we need water for, think again. Water is also essential for producing the food we eat and a lot of common, everyday items we use:
● It takes 12 litres of water to make a sheet of paper
● It takes 100 litres to make 2 slices of bread (and 65 litres to make the cheese filling in your sandwich)
● It takes 150 litres of water to make one pint of beer
● It takes 200 litres of water to produce the coffee beans for one cup of coffee
● It takes 4,200 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice
● It takes 12,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans
● It takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef
● It takes 177,700 litres of water to manufacture a new car
Want more fun facts?
Head to our blog now, where you can find some amazing jellyfish facts for kids, and much more.
