Conductivity

Definition

A bulk measure of dissolved ionic content used to track cycles of concentration and estimate total dissolved solids.

Pure water conducts poorly, but dissolved ions act as charge carriers, so more ions mean easier current flow and higher conductivity. It is reported in microsiemens per cm or millisiemens per cm, where 1 mS/cm equals 1000 microS/cm, so unit mistakes create order-of-magnitude errors. Conductivity measures ionic load, not chemistry, so two waters with identical conductivity can scale or corrode very differently depending on which ions are present.

Related concepts

Mass Balance · Makeup Water · Weighted Average

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 📏 measurement