chemicals in pool chlorine?

[Computer]

well it was my first day of school and my chemistry teacher was telling us about all this weird stuff and he wanted to know if anyone knew what they actually put in pools because apperently it's not chlorine. So i figured there must be a chemist here somewhere.
Anyone?

[vass0922]

Chemist here?!?!
This a tech forum..

We ALL know there are no chemists here

well.. maybe one.. but he's a bit shady being from DC and all
Never know what they put in the water down there..err here

[Theophylact]

well.. maybe one.. but he's a bit shady being from DC and all

Hmphh.

Well, it's usually the equivalent of bleach; sodium or calcium hypochlorite. Sometimes it's a slow-release agent, like N,N'-dichlorodimethylhydantoin (same as in toilet-tank disinfectants). You want me to research it? Why?

[osprey4]

Originally posted by Computer
....my chemistry teacher...wanted to know if anyone knew what they actually put in pools because apperently it's not chlorine.

And this is your chemistry teacher?

With chemistry teachers like that, it's a wonder anyone ends up in chemistry. Apparently not enough do, since US companies are hiring so many foreign nationals for technical positions.

[Computer]

No, no. He knew, he just wanted to see if we knew.

and thanks for the help theo.

[ShawnD1]

There isn't a shortage of chemistry people at all. I have a friend who is a chemistry major and he doesn't expect a job at all when he graduates. ALL of the work he does can be done by an auto-titrator and a computer. He tells me that for all of the labs, the instructors turn off certain output functions of the computers so they only output some of the info. The rest of the info is figured out by the students.

Companies don't need guys with degrees to do things. They just need a few guys from a tech school that has a 2 year program to read the results of what the machine spits out.

[Chuckiechan]

Actually, newer pools don't use liquid chlorine anymore they use salt. There is a catalytic converter of some sort that changes salt to chlorine, but you don't lose salt in the process. You only need to add salt due to spash-out and if it is diluted too much by rain.

Other stuff:
Calcium carbonate to control alkalinity (plaster pool)
Chlorine stabilizer (cyanuric Acid) keeps the sun from destroying the chloring
Muriatic acid to be added as needed to control ph.

Good thing it's diluted!