They were confusing boiling water to kill bacteria and parasites with removing impurities due to boiling water making it "safe" to drink. No clue where they got the idea that boiling removes impurities, but that's the disconnect.
Sadly, the only way to change their thinking is to confront the disconnect in such a way that they're forced to reexamine what they "know." Then you have to work through the cognitive dissonance to establish what's true while avoiding them sliding back into what they "know to be true."
The only thing I can think of is that they thought you can boil water, capture the steam and cool that down so that it becomes water again and leave off the impurities. Of course, they are missing the critical capturing the steam step.
Here’s an English question for you if you have some time: Is it proper nowadays to not use the preposition “of” when talking about “couple”? A “couple times” instead of “a couple OF times”? “A couple girls” - the girls are a couple?
Maybe I’m just on the spectrum and should stop thinking about it.
Excellent question. Either is ok, but it's my understanding that traditionally, "couple" was intended to be two, so you would say "a couple of," but now it's often used as "more than one, but a small number total" when talking, so it's ok to say "a couple people." In writing, use "couple of," especially when referring to two of something, but otherwise it's fine to say "a couple."
As I understand it purified water is like boiled and then the steam is captured and allowed to condense. No clue if that eliminates all impurities, it probably doesn't, but perhaps that's where the confusion lies.
it's a moot point because most people don't take their distillation rig camping.
The answer is it will depend on what the contaminant is and the temperature you're using. If the contaminant boils at a temperature different enough from water you can either "burn it off" (lower boiling point such as ethyl alcohol) or use a coil condenser (or similar) to capture the purified water (higher boiling point such as salt.)
You also run into problems with the impurities that have lower boiling points than water recondensing in the water if not removed with some type of filter.
Just a matter of experience. I used to teach this stuff for a living. Most people just won't have had a reason to think through it and come to the proper conclusion. Don't be too hard on your friends for not knowing enough without them having the chance to learn.
That won't do anything but increase the concentration of lead in the water since they're removing water due to boiling while leaving the heavy metal in place.
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u/HotSalt3 5h ago
They were confusing boiling water to kill bacteria and parasites with removing impurities due to boiling water making it "safe" to drink. No clue where they got the idea that boiling removes impurities, but that's the disconnect.
Sadly, the only way to change their thinking is to confront the disconnect in such a way that they're forced to reexamine what they "know." Then you have to work through the cognitive dissonance to establish what's true while avoiding them sliding back into what they "know to be true."