Hard Water

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What is hard water?
Hard water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium
compounds such as:

 magnesium hydrogen carbonate [Mg(HCO3)2]

 calcium hydrogen carbonate [Ca(HCO3)2]
 magnesium sulfate [MgSO4]
 calcium sulfate [CaSO4]
Hard water can be temporary or permanent.
Temporary hard water contains
magnesium hydrogen carbonate and
calcium hydrogen carbonate.
Permanent hard water contains
magnesium sulfate and calcium sulfate.

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Hard and soft water in the UK

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Hard water and soap
One of the chemicals in soap is sodium stearate.

The dissolved calcium and magnesium compounds

in hard water react with sodium stearate to form a
solid called calcium stearate (or ‘scum’).

Soap ‘scum’ is formed by the reaction:

sodium calcium calcium sodium

+ hydrogen  + hydrogen
stearate stearate
carbonate carbonate
2C17H35COONa (s) + Ca(HCO3)2 (aq)  (C17H35COO)2Ca (s) + 2NaHCO3 (aq)

The soap will only form a lather when all of the dissolved
calcium hydrogen carbonate in the water has reacted.

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Planning to test water hardness
Water hardness can affect how suitable a water supply is
for different uses, like washing and use in heating systems.
How could you use soap to investigate the hardness of
samples of water from different sources?

 What would be the

independent variable?
 What would be the
dependent variable?
 What variables would you
need to control?
 What method would you use?

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Testing hard water with soap

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