Water hardness is commonly measured using two different units, parts per million or parts per gallon. The four samples involved in this project are: filtered water from a water bottle, water from Spring Creek Park in State College, water from the janitor's closet, and tap water from the Copper Beech apartment. In this experiment, these samples were subjected to various tests and procedures to determine specific aspects in each case. These steps were: determination of water hardness by atomic absorption (AA) spectroscopy, evaporation of water to obtain total dissolved solids, analysis of divalent cations by EDTA titration, determination of hardness of the water sample, softening of water with a commercial water conditioning agent in this case resin and ion exchange for the removal of divalent cations. After all these steps and testing all four water samples, we were able to determine how to obtain water hardness from any water sample, the factors involved in hardness levels, as well as its implications a depending on what the water wants to be used for. Therefore, for this experiment we expect to have the following