Today i wanted to do some washing so i went on to get the necessary things needed which includes a bucket of clean water, a separate and empty bowl, detergent and of course the clothes that needed to be washed. Looking at the bucket of water, i noticed it was so clean and crystal clear, I didn't taste it but was somehow sure it would be tasteless too, fitting the perfect description of water.
The story of the water changed when i added the detergent to it. For one, it was no longer a clean and clear as it was, there were now particles in it, detergent that is, when i formed lather with it, it was no longer clear. And of course it now had taste too.
Having said all these, can we now say that the water which was clean and so clear with no (perceived) taste, is now contaminated or the particles of the soap now a contaminant? I didn't see it as such, it was still very useful to me.
Well the answer to thus lies in its definition. I looked up the word contamination in the dictionary and here's what i found;
Contamination:... Process of making a material unsuitable for its purpose...
So there you have it, "Purpose". This is the criteria by which we can classify a thing as being contaminated or not. When a thing if no longer fit to perform its purpose, it can be tagged as being contaminated of a contaminant. Just like a weed, any plant can be a weed so far it's growing where it's not needed. A beautiful rose can be tagged a 'weed' when its growing in a farm of toamtoes.
Now back to the previous question. From all these one can guess what my answer will be, well, it's no. The water isn't contaminated. As a matter of fact, according to this article, I can classify the so called clean bucket of water as being contaminated because it's not serving it's purpose as it's not complete without the detergent in it. Therefore the water with the detergent in it is pure as pure can be and it served it purpose well enough. Supposing I needed the water for drinking then it was perfect without the detergent and we can call the detergent in the water a contaminant.
Thanks for reading through, i hope you found this useful and not as a contaminant. Speaking of contamination, if there's any you found in this post, let me know what your thoughts are. Regards.