Why can't people drink ocean water?

Question

Why can't people drink ocean water?

Answer 1

too much salt, we cant boil it or purify it.

Answer 2

Of course you can drink it but until it is purified its is very salty and the salt will accumulate making us even more thirsty. This is an unstable process, so to try to drink sea water when no other fresh water is around, will lead to a concentration of salt in the person involved. With too much salt we die, so it is not recommended.  

Answer 3

well for example if your stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean and you are really thirsty and all u drink is salt water after awhile you start to go crazy.......i dont know the science behind it though.

Answer 4

you can drink it once u have a mouth..  

Answer 5

snarp is right. you'll do nothing for your thirst by drinking it. You still dehydrate.  

Answer 6

Salt will dehydrate cells so if the cells dehydrate, you dehydrate.

Technically you won't die if you swallow a smidge of ocean water, but it certainly won't hydrate you.

Answer 7

Drinking water is normally quenches your thirst. But when you drink salt water it seems to make you more thirsty. The water in your mouth creates a situation in which the cells in your mouth are in a hypertonic solution. In order to reach an equilibrium, a net water movement out of the cells takes place. Now the cells have even less water than before, and you feel even more thirsty.

Salt water not only dries out your mouth but the cells in your body too!! As it enters your body, the cells near it release water to reach equilibrium with the surrounding fluid. The cells shrink and may become damaged. This is a condition called dehydration, or excessive water loss.

In order to make ocean (salt) water drinkable, a system has been divised to remove the salt. It is called distillation.

Answer 8

u could die of dehydration if all u drink is salt water. Besides it takes really nasty!

Answer 9

Simply because they dont want to.  Why....you better ask another question.

Answer 10

too much salt.