How to make water from scratch: A scientist’s easy at-home recipe.
Nothing is more refreshing than an ice-cold glass of water on a hot summer day. Yet it’s worth asking: how old is that stale old water you’re drinking? Hours old, days old? The fact is, most of those molecules are millions of years old, if not billions of years old. I don’t know about you, but this author likes his water a bit fresher than that (he writes with a chuckle and a smirk). But can we really make water- really make it, as in rearranging atoms to create new water molecules?- from scratch??
The answer is yes, and you can do it at home in a very easy experiment (full disclosure, you’re not going to get a full glass of ice water from this). Anyone can turn methane gas into water very quickly and easily. What you will need:
A gas stove
Optional: a stainless steel pot filled with ice water.
That’s it.
Gas stoves and ovens burn methane gas to cook food. Methane is CH4. That is one carbon bonded with four hydrogens. In order for methane to burn, it needs to be in the presence of oxygen. When methane is burned on your stovetop, the reaction is CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O.
That is, one molecule of methane, burned with two molecules of oxygen, produces one molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water.
Of course, that water is super hot water vapor- you can’t see it… unless you’ve got a stainless steel pot filled with something very cold, like ice water. Get that and set it on your stove. Turn on the burner and in a few seconds you will see condensation begin to form and bead all around the pot. That water isn’t magically appearing from nowhere: it’s the water you just created moments ago by burning methane just below it. Literally the freshest, youngest water molecules in the Universe!
Here’s an extra fun fact. Sure, you can put a lot of fires out using water, but water vapor is also produced by every type of common combustion. From your car engine to your fireplace and furnace, you’re probably making water all the time. In fact, your body and every plant on the planet is making water as we speak in a process called cellular respiration.
