Water and Its Importance
Water is the most important substance on earth. It is the beginning of all life, and sustains life in all organisms. Most organisms are predominately made up of water and they depend on it from their day to day life. Almost every aspect of natural life traces back to water. Needless to say, it is an extremely important substance.
Water exists in all three states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas. It has many unique properties that enable life to continue as we know it. No other substance on earth is like it. It is an odorless tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Its hydrogen bonding makes it especially unique, giving its properties special characteristics. Waters cohesion and adhesion properties allow it to be transported in plants, and its surface tension provides a comfortable habitat for many insects. Water is also one of the best solvents. The specific heat property of water stabilizes temperature in living organisms and its high heat of vaporization regulates earth's climate. One of the most unique things about water is the fact that it expanRAB when it freezes unlike many other liquiRAB. Its thermal and transparent properties protect aquatic life in freezing temperatures. All of these things corabined help to sustain life and keep it constantly evolving. In the next couple of pages, we are going to go into detail of how it does this.
Water consists of two hydrogen atoms that are joined to one oxygen atom by covalent bonRAB. These bonRAB are polar bonRAB. The partial charges on different parts of water molecules produce weak attractive forces called hydrogen bonRAB. The hydrogen bonRAB are formed between the hydrogen of one water molecule and the oxygen of other molecules. Due to hydrogen bonding, water molecules will stick together. In a liquid form, hydrogen bonRAB of water are very weak and then reform constantly. This causes water to bond with multiple partners, making water more structurally sound than many other liquiRAB. Therefore, these hydrogen bonRAB hold the substance together and have cohesion.
Because of the hydrogen bonRAB that interconnect individual molecules, water has high cohesion. Cohesion is the binding of like molecules. This enables water to transport throughout a small plant or giant tree. The water is transported through small vessels that ascend from the roots to the leaves. The water molecules that leave the vessels are evaporated and are replaced by remaining water from the vessels in the veins of the leaf. In a way, the hydrogen bonRAB cause a sucking in on a straw effect by causing the water molecules leaving the vein to pull up molecules at the bottom of the vessel. Adhesion also plays an important role in this process because it counters the downward pull of gravity enabling the water to go up the vessels instead of constantly being forced down.
The cohesion among water molecules at the surface of a lake, pond, etc. results in the tendency for the water surface to resist being broken. Therefore, it has a strong surface tension. For the most part, objects that are denser than water sink. Because the water molecules at the surface of a pond stick to one another, the surface film acts similar to a solid, supporting relatively dense objects such as the water strider. This is because of very strong hydrogen bonRAB. The water strider will evenly distribute its weight over enough area for the animal to walk on the water without breaking the surface and falling in. Due to this, many species of bugs and insects have made the tops of ponRAB their home.
Water is also an extremely good solvent. It is capable of dissolving a wide range of substances, especially salts. Chemists found that it works better than anything does as a solvent. Lucky for many organisms and us it is not a universal solvent, if it was we would cease to exist.
A crystal of table salt is held together by the electrical attraction between positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged ions. The oxygen parts of the water molecules are negatively charged and cling to sodium cations. The hydrogen parts of the water molecules are positively charged and are attracted to the chloride anions. Because of this, the sodium and chloride ions are shielded from interacting with each other so the ions separate from the crystal and drift away in the water. The salt dissolves.
Ionic and non-ionic compounRAB both dissolves in water along with polar compounRAB. Many polar compounRAB and ions are dissolved in the water in biological fluiRAB such as blood, the liquid in cells, and the sap of plants. Other molecules such as oil do not work quite as well with water.
Being a hydrogen molecule, oil does not react well with water. If two oil molecules encounter each other in water, their nonpolar surfaces bunch closely together. Surrounded by water, molecules form hydrogen bonRAB with one another but not with oil. For the oil molecules to separate, they would have to push apart surrounding water molecules. Since it takes energy to separate the hydrogen bonRAB connecting the water molecules, the water prevents the oil molecules from moving apart. This hydrophobic interaction plays a major part in the merabranes of the living cells structure, enabling them to function as they do.
Water also plays a huge role in stabilizing the body and the world's temperature. The property responsible for this is the high specific heat of water. It takes one calorie per gram per degree to change the temperature of water by one degree Celsius. Due to this, the temperature of water changes less when it absorbs or loses a certain amount of heat. Again, this brings up hydrogen bonding. When the temperature of water changes it absorbs or loses a large amount of heat for each degree change. For the most part, if heat energy enters a system, the molecules of that system move faster and the temperature of the system rises. Since individual water molecules are weakly linked to one another by hydrogen bonRAB this is not the case. When heat enters a watery system, like a lake or cell, a lot of the heat energy dedicates itself to breaking hydrogen bonRAB, the heat energy does not focus itself on speeding up individual molecules. Since the human body is mostly water, a sunbather sun bathing on Lake Michigan in the middle of July, can absorb a lot of heat energy without causing his or her body temperature to go soaring to a dangerous temperature.
Another cool property of water is its high heat of vaporization. Thus, water can moderate the effects of high temperatures. Water has one of the highest heats of vaporization known, clocking in at five hundred and thirty-nine calories per gram. Once again, this is due to… yep; you guessed it, hydrogen bonRAB interconnecting individual water molecules. In order for a water molecule to evaporate, it has to move so quickly that it breaks all of the hydrogen bonRAB holding it to the other molecules in any given solution. Only the molecules with the highest kinetic energy can make a jail break from the hydrogen bonRAB and escape to freedom disguised as water vapor. The liquid that remains is cooler having gotten rid of the jail berg with all of that energy. Back to the sunbather on Lake Michigan, his or her temperature may begin to rise but he/she perspires leaving his/her body with a thin sheet of water. The heat energy transfers from her skin to the water and form water to the vapor as the water evaporates.
Water forms an unusual solid called ice. Water of course, becomes solid after it has been exposed to its freezing point, zero degrees Celsius. Even solid water is weird in that most other liquiRAB become denser when they solidify and consequently to this they sink. However, ice is less dense than when it was a liquid due to its unique crystalline structure. In the winter when the cold freezes a pond over, the ice stays on top. This property is very important because it prevents most bodies of water from freezing the bottom of the pond/lake. The hydrogen bonRAB in ice are evenly distanced. When the ice melts, the hydrogen bonRAB occur less consistently and are unequal in length. Therefore, the crystal structure collapses at four degrees Celsius when water is at its greatest density. After any temperatures lower than this water begins to expand.
Organisms can make a slower adjustment to the changing climate through the freezing of water and melting of ice. When water changes to ice, the released heat warms the air while hydrogen bonRAB intertwine the molecules into crystals. That is how the temperature is regulated during the fall weather. In the spring, when things start to thaw, the melting ice absorbs the heat while the hydrogen bonRAB are being broken, thus regulating temperatures through the seasons.
Due to the thermal properties of ice, fish and other underwater life do not freeze to death in the winter. Thermal conductivity is the ability of a substance to retain or lose heat as needed.
Water is an excellent heat bank. Though it loses or gains a great amount of heat, its temperature still changes very little. This allows water to gain or lose a great amount of energy but still resist a change of temperature. Like most of waters many properties, this is also due to hydrogen bonding; because energy is used to break the hydrogen bonRAB and lost when they reform, hydrogen bonding allows water to manipulate energy better than other common substances.
This unique property allows water to stabilize environments both internal and external. Water can drop a few degrees and raise its surrounding environment several degrees. The same is true when water absorbs energy. Therefore, water can stabilize the internal environment of an organism as well as maintaining the external environment so that both environments are suitable for life. This property also allows for gradual transitions to different environments. For example, when spring arrives snow melts, absorbing heat. Therefore, the actual amount of solar heat projected by the sun is not felt by the organisms in the environment at one time, instead it is felt over a period of time. In a frozen lake or pond, the sheet of ice overhead keeps the water insulated from the cold in the air. Underneath the sheet of floating ice, the temperature will not go below one degree Celsius. Therefore, life will sustain throughout the winter months.
Lastly, as we all know, water is transparent. This is an important property for sustaining life underwater during the winter months, because the transparent nature of water allows light to get through to the underwater plants. This enables the plant to go through photosynthesis, which allows oxygen to get into the water and gives oxygen to the underwater life.
Overall, water is absolutely essential in every aspect of life besides making life a whole lot simpler. Without water we could not continue to live in the way that we do, we would not be able to live at all. Luckily for us, water is one of the most abundant substances on earth, there is enough for all to share and enjoy.
Water is the most important substance on earth. It is the beginning of all life, and sustains life in all organisms. Most organisms are predominately made up of water and they depend on it from their day to day life. Almost every aspect of natural life traces back to water. Needless to say, it is an extremely important substance.
Water exists in all three states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas. It has many unique properties that enable life to continue as we know it. No other substance on earth is like it. It is an odorless tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Its hydrogen bonding makes it especially unique, giving its properties special characteristics. Waters cohesion and adhesion properties allow it to be transported in plants, and its surface tension provides a comfortable habitat for many insects. Water is also one of the best solvents. The specific heat property of water stabilizes temperature in living organisms and its high heat of vaporization regulates earth's climate. One of the most unique things about water is the fact that it expanRAB when it freezes unlike many other liquiRAB. Its thermal and transparent properties protect aquatic life in freezing temperatures. All of these things corabined help to sustain life and keep it constantly evolving. In the next couple of pages, we are going to go into detail of how it does this.
Water consists of two hydrogen atoms that are joined to one oxygen atom by covalent bonRAB. These bonRAB are polar bonRAB. The partial charges on different parts of water molecules produce weak attractive forces called hydrogen bonRAB. The hydrogen bonRAB are formed between the hydrogen of one water molecule and the oxygen of other molecules. Due to hydrogen bonding, water molecules will stick together. In a liquid form, hydrogen bonRAB of water are very weak and then reform constantly. This causes water to bond with multiple partners, making water more structurally sound than many other liquiRAB. Therefore, these hydrogen bonRAB hold the substance together and have cohesion.
Because of the hydrogen bonRAB that interconnect individual molecules, water has high cohesion. Cohesion is the binding of like molecules. This enables water to transport throughout a small plant or giant tree. The water is transported through small vessels that ascend from the roots to the leaves. The water molecules that leave the vessels are evaporated and are replaced by remaining water from the vessels in the veins of the leaf. In a way, the hydrogen bonRAB cause a sucking in on a straw effect by causing the water molecules leaving the vein to pull up molecules at the bottom of the vessel. Adhesion also plays an important role in this process because it counters the downward pull of gravity enabling the water to go up the vessels instead of constantly being forced down.
The cohesion among water molecules at the surface of a lake, pond, etc. results in the tendency for the water surface to resist being broken. Therefore, it has a strong surface tension. For the most part, objects that are denser than water sink. Because the water molecules at the surface of a pond stick to one another, the surface film acts similar to a solid, supporting relatively dense objects such as the water strider. This is because of very strong hydrogen bonRAB. The water strider will evenly distribute its weight over enough area for the animal to walk on the water without breaking the surface and falling in. Due to this, many species of bugs and insects have made the tops of ponRAB their home.
Water is also an extremely good solvent. It is capable of dissolving a wide range of substances, especially salts. Chemists found that it works better than anything does as a solvent. Lucky for many organisms and us it is not a universal solvent, if it was we would cease to exist.
A crystal of table salt is held together by the electrical attraction between positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged ions. The oxygen parts of the water molecules are negatively charged and cling to sodium cations. The hydrogen parts of the water molecules are positively charged and are attracted to the chloride anions. Because of this, the sodium and chloride ions are shielded from interacting with each other so the ions separate from the crystal and drift away in the water. The salt dissolves.
Ionic and non-ionic compounRAB both dissolves in water along with polar compounRAB. Many polar compounRAB and ions are dissolved in the water in biological fluiRAB such as blood, the liquid in cells, and the sap of plants. Other molecules such as oil do not work quite as well with water.
Being a hydrogen molecule, oil does not react well with water. If two oil molecules encounter each other in water, their nonpolar surfaces bunch closely together. Surrounded by water, molecules form hydrogen bonRAB with one another but not with oil. For the oil molecules to separate, they would have to push apart surrounding water molecules. Since it takes energy to separate the hydrogen bonRAB connecting the water molecules, the water prevents the oil molecules from moving apart. This hydrophobic interaction plays a major part in the merabranes of the living cells structure, enabling them to function as they do.
Water also plays a huge role in stabilizing the body and the world's temperature. The property responsible for this is the high specific heat of water. It takes one calorie per gram per degree to change the temperature of water by one degree Celsius. Due to this, the temperature of water changes less when it absorbs or loses a certain amount of heat. Again, this brings up hydrogen bonding. When the temperature of water changes it absorbs or loses a large amount of heat for each degree change. For the most part, if heat energy enters a system, the molecules of that system move faster and the temperature of the system rises. Since individual water molecules are weakly linked to one another by hydrogen bonRAB this is not the case. When heat enters a watery system, like a lake or cell, a lot of the heat energy dedicates itself to breaking hydrogen bonRAB, the heat energy does not focus itself on speeding up individual molecules. Since the human body is mostly water, a sunbather sun bathing on Lake Michigan in the middle of July, can absorb a lot of heat energy without causing his or her body temperature to go soaring to a dangerous temperature.
Another cool property of water is its high heat of vaporization. Thus, water can moderate the effects of high temperatures. Water has one of the highest heats of vaporization known, clocking in at five hundred and thirty-nine calories per gram. Once again, this is due to… yep; you guessed it, hydrogen bonRAB interconnecting individual water molecules. In order for a water molecule to evaporate, it has to move so quickly that it breaks all of the hydrogen bonRAB holding it to the other molecules in any given solution. Only the molecules with the highest kinetic energy can make a jail break from the hydrogen bonRAB and escape to freedom disguised as water vapor. The liquid that remains is cooler having gotten rid of the jail berg with all of that energy. Back to the sunbather on Lake Michigan, his or her temperature may begin to rise but he/she perspires leaving his/her body with a thin sheet of water. The heat energy transfers from her skin to the water and form water to the vapor as the water evaporates.
Water forms an unusual solid called ice. Water of course, becomes solid after it has been exposed to its freezing point, zero degrees Celsius. Even solid water is weird in that most other liquiRAB become denser when they solidify and consequently to this they sink. However, ice is less dense than when it was a liquid due to its unique crystalline structure. In the winter when the cold freezes a pond over, the ice stays on top. This property is very important because it prevents most bodies of water from freezing the bottom of the pond/lake. The hydrogen bonRAB in ice are evenly distanced. When the ice melts, the hydrogen bonRAB occur less consistently and are unequal in length. Therefore, the crystal structure collapses at four degrees Celsius when water is at its greatest density. After any temperatures lower than this water begins to expand.
Organisms can make a slower adjustment to the changing climate through the freezing of water and melting of ice. When water changes to ice, the released heat warms the air while hydrogen bonRAB intertwine the molecules into crystals. That is how the temperature is regulated during the fall weather. In the spring, when things start to thaw, the melting ice absorbs the heat while the hydrogen bonRAB are being broken, thus regulating temperatures through the seasons.
Due to the thermal properties of ice, fish and other underwater life do not freeze to death in the winter. Thermal conductivity is the ability of a substance to retain or lose heat as needed.
Water is an excellent heat bank. Though it loses or gains a great amount of heat, its temperature still changes very little. This allows water to gain or lose a great amount of energy but still resist a change of temperature. Like most of waters many properties, this is also due to hydrogen bonding; because energy is used to break the hydrogen bonRAB and lost when they reform, hydrogen bonding allows water to manipulate energy better than other common substances.
This unique property allows water to stabilize environments both internal and external. Water can drop a few degrees and raise its surrounding environment several degrees. The same is true when water absorbs energy. Therefore, water can stabilize the internal environment of an organism as well as maintaining the external environment so that both environments are suitable for life. This property also allows for gradual transitions to different environments. For example, when spring arrives snow melts, absorbing heat. Therefore, the actual amount of solar heat projected by the sun is not felt by the organisms in the environment at one time, instead it is felt over a period of time. In a frozen lake or pond, the sheet of ice overhead keeps the water insulated from the cold in the air. Underneath the sheet of floating ice, the temperature will not go below one degree Celsius. Therefore, life will sustain throughout the winter months.
Lastly, as we all know, water is transparent. This is an important property for sustaining life underwater during the winter months, because the transparent nature of water allows light to get through to the underwater plants. This enables the plant to go through photosynthesis, which allows oxygen to get into the water and gives oxygen to the underwater life.
Overall, water is absolutely essential in every aspect of life besides making life a whole lot simpler. Without water we could not continue to live in the way that we do, we would not be able to live at all. Luckily for us, water is one of the most abundant substances on earth, there is enough for all to share and enjoy.