THE NATURE OF WATER
Man never ceases trying fo find answers to
everything existing around him. Scientists have left hardly anything
that they have not brought under scrutiny and analysis in their
laboratories. It is an endless and ancient human effort.
Water was a fascinating subject to the ancient Greeks in particular
and they studied it intensely. They concluded that water, earth,
fire and air were the four basic elements from which all compound
substances were derived. They believed that the fusion of two
or more of the above created other known compounds.
Today we know definitely that water itself is not an element but
a compound made up of hydrogen and oxygen. An element is something
that cannot be broken up or disunited. The process of separating
the components of water is known as electrolysis, achieved by
placing a number of drops of acid in pure water and conducting
an electric current through it. The current breaks up the unity
of the compounds o that the hydrogen separates from the oxygen.
Why the acid? Because pure water neutralized the electric current
and voids it. The formula for water, H20, is a chemical designation
meaning two parts of hydrogen to one of oxygen. Now science teaches
us that there are 92 elements in nature instead of the four that
the ancient Greeks believed existed. Furthermore we also now know
for a certainty that even the other substances they thought they
were elements are not elements at all but compounds.