Question

Question #aa61d

Answer 1

Because the concentration of charged particles in pure water is vanishingly small.

Explanation:

We know that water does undergo autoprotolysis:

`2H_2O(l) rightleftharpoons H_3O^(+) + HO^(-)` `K_a=10^-14`

At standard (and higher) temperatures, the `K_a` value is quite small. The result is that water is a poor conductor because of the absence of species that can carry a charge.