Edit: Question answered. Thanks!
Don’t be too hard on me, I almost failed chemistry:'(
In: 2220
All the answers here are missing a vital component. The biggest issue is that water follows the salt. Salt is the leader in this situation. In a balanced world there is as much salt in your cells as outside and everyone is happy. The leaders all agree to be balanced and the cells are healthy. Each portion of salt attracts the same amount of water, each leader has the same number of followers.
Electrolyte solutions keep this healthy balance so the leaders inside and outside the cells agree that the right amount of water is where it is supposed to be.
If you drink a lot of sea water you are introducing too many leaders (salt). They can’t go into the cells like the water can. (Cells have walls to keep the balance.) The extra leaders call all the water out of the cells and the cells shrivel (called crenation). If they shrivel too much they die.
If you drink too much water the leaders in the cells will expand and cause them to pop, also creating cell death.
If your kidneys could produce a sufficiently concentrated urine to “steal” H2O from seawater, you could drink seawater and hydrate yourself with it. A small australian mouse can do that (crazy kidneys). You, as a human, can’t. You are effectively introducing a sodium load so large that your body will need to GIVE WATER TO IT in order to expel it. That’s why you dehydrate yourself really fast if you drink seawater.
All the answers here are missing a vital component. The biggest issue is that water follows the salt. Salt is the leader in this situation. In a balanced world there is as much salt in your cells as outside and everyone is happy. The leaders all agree to be balanced and the cells are healthy. Each portion of salt attracts the same amount of water, each leader has the same number of followers.
Electrolyte solutions keep this healthy balance so the leaders inside and outside the cells agree that the right amount of water is where it is supposed to be.
If you drink a lot of sea water you are introducing too many leaders (salt). They can’t go into the cells like the water can. (Cells have walls to keep the balance.) The extra leaders call all the water out of the cells and the cells shrivel (called crenation). If they shrivel too much they die.
If you drink too much water the leaders in the cells will expand and cause them to pop, also creating cell death.
If your kidneys could produce a sufficiently concentrated urine to “steal” H2O from seawater, you could drink seawater and hydrate yourself with it. A small australian mouse can do that (crazy kidneys). You, as a human, can’t. You are effectively introducing a sodium load so large that your body will need to GIVE WATER TO IT in order to expel it. That’s why you dehydrate yourself really fast if you drink seawater.
Somebody did a study on those stranded at sea where somebody lived. It turned out those who drank seawater were LESS likely to live long enough to be rescued. Don’t drink seawater. Now electrolytes are what plants crave.
Somebody did a study on those stranded at sea where somebody lived. It turned out those who drank seawater were LESS likely to live long enough to be rescued. Don’t drink seawater. Now electrolytes are what plants crave.
Why does turning the heater on feel nice but a blowtorch is uncomfortable?
Somebody did a study on those stranded at sea where somebody lived. It turned out those who drank seawater were LESS likely to live long enough to be rescued. Don’t drink seawater. Now electrolytes are what plants crave.
Why does turning the heater on feel nice but a blowtorch is uncomfortable?
Why does turning the heater on feel nice but a blowtorch is uncomfortable?
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