Water has fascinating properties, which is one of the reasons water is so mysterious. Here are a few properties of water.
 |
| adheisve and cohesive nature of water |
Water is
cohesive and
adhesive. Which means water sticks to itself, cohesion, and to other things, adhesion. For example when there is a drop of water that is at the end of a faucet it will stick to the faucet until it eventually falls. The water sticks to the faucet because it is adhesive. Adhesion affects you when you sweat. If the sweat did not stick to you, it would fall to the ground and you would not be cooled off as the sweat evaporates.
Water's cohesive property explains why water balls up. The reason water balls up is that the molecules stick to other water molecules. If water was not cohesive the drops of water would collapse!
 |
| water strider |
Surface tension is the reason water has adhesive and cohesive properties. Surface tension is why water striders scuttle across ponds and do not sink. Water molecules are made of three atoms: one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. The oxygen atom is negatively charged and the hydrogen atoms are positively charged. This difference in the charge of the water molecules means that water molecules are attracted to each other so they stick together. Negative charges are attracted to positive charges and they fit together like a puzzle. The surface tension of water is broken when you take a bath. The weight of your body in the water causes it to break apart. If it didn't, you would be on top of the water!
 |
| water dissolving substances |
Water has another property. It can
dissolve substances. When water dissolves substances it breaks them down into little pieces that spread throughout the water. When water dissolves a solid, the dissolved particles do not turn into a liquid. They just get broken down into tiny pieces. Water's ability to dissolve affects you right now because the water in your blood dissolves nutrients your body needs and they get transported to wherever the sugars, proteins, vitamins and minerals need to go to make your body healthy.
Those are only a few facts about the amazing substance, water.
--Jacob Todd
