Water Filteration Project

For this project, my two groupmates and I worked towards making clean water from the dirty

water provided to us. We started by getting a recycled bottle top and a coffee filter. We then put

the coffee filter into the bottle top and grabbed a cup of dirty water. We poured the water through

our makeshift funnel and watched as it filtered out any big debris in it. We then created a more

thorough funnel by adding two cotton balls, one tablespoon of carbon, three tablespoons of sand,

and two tablespoons of rock. We then added one more layer by adding three more tablespoons of

sand and three tablespoons of rock. We ran the water through this filter numerous times. My

groupmates and I then used a distillation kit to vaporize any of the contaminants left over in the

water. The product of our experiment ended up working out exactly how we wanted it to.

There were many different relationships involved in this experiment. When we had used our

first funnel filtering system, the coffee filter allowed everything to flow through besides the large

debris, which helped start the process of making clean water. The more thorough funnel we used

helped remove smaller debris within the water that our first funnel was not able to filter. This

then led to the distillation kit, which helped remove all of the leftover debris, helping our

experiment tremendously. The distillation kit was our final and most important step to making

clean water.

During one of our chemistry classes, we watched a video about vapor and how many

different chemicals and gases it makes depending on the temperature. This inspired my

groupmates and me to use the distillation kit after we filtered it. We had researched effective

ways to clean water through vapor, and we were able to find a lot of information about the

distillation kit being one of the most effective ways. The filtering idea came from one of our
previous experiments in chemistry that required a funnel and filter. Both ideas were applied in

this experiment, which led to our successful result.

The history of water filtration can be found back around 300 B.C. The Greek scientist

Hippocrates had invented the “Hippocratic sleeve” with a simple piece of cloth that filtered the

water. Later during the third and fourth centuries, Egyptians had purified their water with many

different methods. One of these methods was called “Coagulation.” They had placed a chemical

called alum into the water, which caused the water and any debris to separate. This allowed the

Egyptians to remove any impurities from the water easier. Another method Egyptians had used

was to heat up the water. They used the sun, a fire, or hot iron to get rid of any bacteria in it.

Sources: (For The Last Paragraph)

https://www.pelicanwater.com/blog/history-water-filtration/

https://www.johnsonwater.com/history-water-treatment/#:~:text=Water%20Treatment%20in%20

Ancient%20Egypt,impurities%20are%20easy%20to%20remove.