Mystery of the Bad Taste
Are you curious, clever, and ready to investigate? How do we taste different flavours? Why do some things taste sweet, sour, bitter, or salty? How do our tongues and senses work together? What happens when food goes bad, and how can we tell? The Lucas Detective Agency series promotes and encourages critical thinking, incorporating STEM subjects into the storytelling in a fun and adventurous way.
Transcription for Mystery of the Bad Taste
Please note this transcript is generated automatically and may contain errors.
Lucas! Sharp eyes, intelligent mind, super insight. I am Detective Lucas. What’s wrong, Dad? I just got home from my run, and all I wanted was a drink of water to cool down, and now it has left a horrible taste in my mouth. Hmm. Sounds like a mystery that can be solved with science. Yes. I think we might have to get the water testing kits out. Dad, tell me more about your water. Is it from the tap in the house? Well, I was getting ready for my run, and I knew that when I got back to the house afterwards, I would want a big drink of water.
So I was going to get my water bottle out to fill it when I saw one that already had some in it, and so I filled it up and left it by the door. Okay. So I think the first thing we should do is test the hardness of the water. Well, water is never very hard, unless you belly flop into it. That wasn’t fun. Ugh. Ugh. Yobi, can you tell us about hard and soft water? Different areas treat their water sources differently, resulting in varying hardness of water.
Hard water has more minerals like calcium and magnesium in it. This can give it a chemically taste. Soft water has had a lot of these minerals taken out and can taste nicer. Okay. Let’s test if the tap water is hard or soft. I think we should test it with the more fun way. Okay, Lucas. How are we going to do it? Detective Lucas’ top tip. If you want to test if your water at home is hard or soft, fill a bottle about a third of the way up from your tap, add some liquid soap, put the lid back on, and shake it.
If there is loads of fluffy bubbles, your water is probably soft water. What does loads of bubbles mean? Hmm. This means that the water is soft, but that also means it shouldn’t taste bad. Ah. So it hasn’t solved our problem. What other water test could we do, Yobi? What about a pH test, Lucas? Oh, that’s a good idea. I think we will need the test for that one. What will we find out from a pH test? pH tests tell us how acidic or alkaline something is.
If the water rates around seven on the pH scale, it is very neutral, and then we will know that the pH isn’t why the water tastes funny. But if it is very high or very low, so around one or 14, these may cause a bad taste. Acidic water can taste sour. So we will dip this test in, and if the color is red, the water is acidic. If it is purple, the water is alkaline. And if it is green, the water is neutral. Dad, can you give me the bottle you drank out of, please?
Yes. Here you go. Okay, so I am going to test this water for its pH. So the water is alkaline. Would that explain the horrible taste? Yes, but how did the water get so alkaline? I’m going to test the tap water. Hmm, so this water is different than the water you drank, Dad. Has anyone seen the big bottle of vinegar? There was definitely a bit left yesterday. Yobi, is vinegar alkaline? Yes, very alkaline. Dad? Wait, what have I done? You must have grabbed the almost empty bottle of vinegar and filled it with water before your run.
When you got back and took a drink, it was water with a lot of vinegar in it, so it will have tasted horrible. So that’s where all the vinegar has gone.