Solvent of Water
Water seems so simple at a first glance. It’s tasteless, transparent, and can fit into any form or shape with ease. It can be frozen or heated up to the point where it disappears. Yet take away water from mankind and we would cease to exist. That’s because just by looking at water we can’t see how complex it is. We don’t see all its properties either. Water is very vital to living things because it supports life. As a result, if we find it on other planets it would change our lives because it opens new opportunities and questions. But what makes water so important to life?
Water is very intricate and special. It is formed when two hydrogen atoms bond with an oxygen atom (hydrogen bonding). It takes 1,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules to make one drop of water, making it very complex. Water has five main properties making it so complex. Water can be a polar solvent because of its attraction to positive of negative electrical charges. It has a high specific heat capacity which helps minimize changes in temperature. Water also has the property of high heat vaporization. An example of it is when one’s body gets too hot, the body sweats. The sweat (water our body produces) we secrete on a hot day takes 540 calories of heat when it evaporates, helping us cool down. When water freezes (ice), its density gets lower than at room temperature. Because ice floats, it helps keep the oceans at a stable temperature during old seasons. The last main property of water is its high polarity. It is part of the reason for waters attraction to electrical charges. All this cannot happen without hydrogen bonding because it plays a key role in the life of water.
Hydrogen bonding forms when the atoms in the covalent molecule pull the contributed electrons to one side of the molecule, resulting in an electrical imbalance in the molecule. The most common hydrogen bonding is the one that occurs during water. Hydrogen bonding gives water the characteristics of adhesion and cohesion. Because of these characteristic water can stick to itself (cohesion) and other molecules (adhesion). This is important because this is how plants take up water from their roots. Water can also dissolve substances in itself. Usually polar solvents dissolve polar salutes while non-polar solvents dissolve non-polar salutes. Also because water can dissolve substances, with the right elements water can conduct electricity. In conclusion hydrogen bonding can give water unique properties such as cohesion, adhesion, density, and so much more!
Water supports all living things on earth. Without water there would be no life. Water’s unique properties help it support all living things. For example, the characteristic of transparency helps support plant life underwater because the plants need sunlight to grow (photosynthesis). Also as a result of water being a moderator of temperature changes, amphibians benefit because they need water to keep their cool and moist while they are away from water. Water delivers vital minerals to our bodies since it can dissolve polar substances easily. In the arctic, it is normal to see a layer of ice covering the water underneath it. This is due to the water becoming denser when it is frozen than when at room temperature. There are so many more ways that water supports life, and without it there would be no mankind.