Question

Among distilled water, tap water, and ocean water, which will be the best electrical conductor and why?

Answer 1

Electrical conductivity: A solution conducts electricity due to the presence of ions in the solution. The higher the number of ions in the solution higher will be conductivity of the solution.

The conductivity of distilled water, tap water, and ocean water:

Distilled water:

• Distilled water is pure water which means there is no ions present.
• Hence it will be a poor conductor of electricity.

Tap water:

• Tap water has some salts of Sodium, Calcium, and Magnesium dissolved in it, in small quantities.
• Hence it will have ions present in it. Therefore, it will have more electrical conductivity than distilled water.

Ocean water:

• Ocean water on the other hand has $3.5\%$ of its weight as dissolved salts. It has a large number of ions, such as Sodium and Chloride ions present in it.
• Therefore, seawater is a very good conductor of electricity.

Hence out of distilled water, tap water, or seawater, seawater will be the best electrical conductor.