🔍 Key Concepts

• Relationship between salinity and measurable physical properties of water • How dissolved salt affects electrical properties vs. density and clarity • Common shipboard methods for checking boiler feedwater or evaporator discharge salinity

💭 Think About

• Which of these properties (specific gravity, conductance, optical transparency, capacitance) changes most clearly and measurably with small changes in salt content? • On ships, what kind of sensor is commonly used to trigger alarms when salt content in distilled water becomes too high? • If you needed a simple, reliable electronic way to monitor salinity continuously in a pipe, which property would be easiest to wire into a meter or alarm circuit?

✅ Before You Answer

• Compare how sensitive specific gravity and electrical behavior of water are to small changes in salinity • Think about how a salinometer is connected in a system: does it usually involve electrodes, floats, or light beams? • Eliminate any choices that are rarely used for rugged, continuous shipboard salinity monitoring (e.g., fragile optics or complex capacitance circuits)