Living Water?

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
What’s the differences between living water and dead water?
- Exir Kamalabadi (age 9)
Shanghai,China
A:
This one sounds very unfamiliar to a physicist. We’ve tossed this around, and we think these words are used with a number of different meanings. Here’s a couple that we’ve heard of:

(1) Perhaps these words are used to describe water which either has many living micro-organisms in it or water from which they have been removed by filters or killed by some type of sterilization. For example, the water in the ocean would be considered "living" since it has lots of little microorganisms and stuff in it. The water in the dead sea, on the other hand, would be "dead water" since it’s too salty for most anything to survive in it.

(2) These terms are also used in religion, although we’re not really theology experts, so we don’t know the exact meanings. (Sorry.)

Mike W. & Tim

(published on 10/22/2007)