ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the typical, traditional physical parameters of taste and odor, color, temperature, turbidity, and solids. It provides information on pH and solubility. Turbidity may be classified as both a physical parameter, because it can raise aesthetic and psychological objections by the consumer, and a microbiological parameter, because it may harbor pathogens and impede the effectiveness of disinfection. Some dissolved solids may be perceived by the physical senses but fall more appropriately under the category of chemical parameters. Solids are classified (in spite of their chemical composition) among the physical parameters of water quality. In water, suspended material is objectionable because it provides adsorption sites for biological and chemical agents. Solubility is a term often used in connection with water treatment, laboratory analyses, and chemical and physical studies of water, even though solubility is not a general, physical, or chemical parameter.
