- Water is not just an Earthly phenomenon. It’s abundant in space, found in comets, asteroids, and even on moons like Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn), where it exists as ice and possibly liquid beneath their icy crusts.
- At extremely high pressures, water can exist in a state called “hot ice” or ice VII, which is denser than liquid water and forms a solid at temperatures that would normally melt it.
- A single dripping faucet can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water per year. Fixing leaks can significantly reduce water wastage and save money on utility bills.
- Texas is home to more than 7,000 man-made reservoirs, making it the state with the most reservoirs in the U.S. The largest, Lake Texoma, spans the Texas-Oklahoma border and covers about 89,000 acres.
- Water can remain liquid below its freezing point in a state called supercooling. If supercooled water is disturbed, it can instantly freeze.
- The concept of “virtual water” refers to the hidden water used to produce goods and services. For example, producing one pound of beef requires about 1,800 gallons of water, while a single pair of jeans takes about 2,900 gallons.
- The average American has a water footprint of about 2,000 gallons per day, which includes direct water use and the virtual water embedded in food, products, and services.
- Texas has a unique system of water rights known as the “prior appropriation” doctrine, where the first person to use water for a beneficial purpose has the right to continue using that amount of water. This system is crucial for managing the state’s scarce water resources.
- An inspired MIT student created “smart ice cubes” that can track how much alcohol you drink. The cubes change from green to yellow to red to alert you to how much you’ve consumed. If you continue to drink in the red, a text will be sent to a designated friend to ask him or her to step in.
- Earth has a closed water cycle, so it just keeps recycling. That means every sip of water could have been part of an ancient swamp or even an ice age glacier. This means the water molecules you drink today may have passed through a dinosaur.