A Question for the day
When is water no longer water?

This is not a science question. It is a logic question. Some say you are supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day. Others say you don't need that much. Either way, what qualifies as water?

If I bring a bottle of water to work everyday and drink what is in the bottle straight from the bottle, obviously this is water. But if I also pour some of that water into a cup, heat it, and drop in a teabag so that the eventual outcome is now some form of tea, is that no longer water? None of the water that I put into the cup has left the cup (ignoring the science of water evaporation in the form of steam). Yet now I can only call it tea, because to continue calling the now brown liquid 'water' would imply I'm drinking disgusting brown water.

By the way, while disgusting brown water may still technically be water, I'm not going to drink it. But if it's tea, I will quite enjoy drinking that.

To further the explanation of my query, the same issue exists with lemonade, or Kool-Aid, or even Tang. If I mix up a pitcher of lemonade it is at least mostly water at some point. Quite a lot of water, in fact. But then I call it lemonade because I've added lemonade mix to the water, creating an alternate form of the water previously in the pitcher. It tastes different, yet none of the water has left the pitcher. But is it still water? Or does the mix magically transform the concoction into an entirely different liquid that no longer qualifies as an acceptable beverage in the water genre? Does this still count as my water intake for the day? If I drink eight glasses of lemonade or Tang, will I still also need to drink eight additional glasses of water?

Will I then burst like an overly-full water (or lemonade) balloon? Yes. That I do know.

What about coffee? By itself, it's just a bean or a pile of grounds. Then you add water and you have a liquid that is drink-able, rather than comsuming the coffee by chewing on a coffee bean. All of the water you put in the coffee maker eventually comes out of the maker and into a pot or a cup, albeit as coffee. But does that make it any less water than before it went into the maker?

These things I wonder, as I sit here sipping my tea, staring at my half empty bottle of water, and looking forward to my Coke for lunch.

C.T.