Water: Thread on Science of water

[Jyera]

I'm interested and facinated by water.
And would like to learn more.

Anyone in this forum that is also interested ?

Is there anyone in this forum who has enough expertise about water to lead a fruitful discussion about it?

[Soapy Sam]

I know hydrogen bonding is the important bit. That causes the separate H2O molecules to be attracted to each other more than is normal for most liquids. The net forces in water are attractive rather than repulsive.
As a result, water has an unexpectedly high boiling point and has it's maximum density 4 degrees C above freezing. This means water ice floats and the ice acts as an insulator, so lakes and rivers rarely freeze solid.

Fish see this as a good thing.

The tendency of water molecules to clump also means there actually is some structure to liquid water, especially close to surfaces of proteins and other big molecules. When the molecule is removed, the structure collapses within thousandths of a second, except in France.

[Bronze Dog]

Fun fact everyone here probably already knows: by some definitions, water is both a weak acid and a weak base.

Definition of acid (for this post): A chemical that releases H+ ions when in water.
Definition of a base: A chemical that releases OH- ions when in water.

Water is self ionizing, and spontaneously breaks into both H+ and OH- ions, so it meets both definitions... at least if you're considering the water to be in water.

[Mojo]

Try this site (http://www.dhmo.org/)! ;)

[Mojo]

More seriously, try:

http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/aboutwater.html

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/

[Jyera]

Mojo, excellent links you have provided.

I agree with SoapySam that hydrogen-bonding is an important aspect of water. And As BronzeDog pointed out the fun fact, "corrosiveness" of water as acid and base should makes for some interesting discussion.

Another 2 areas I thought interesting is the Isotope and about "pureness" of water.

So much to discuss and learn about.
So many good stuff to readup on.

Moreover there are too much to talk about water that is possible within a single thread. We probably should start other threads about specific aspect of water.

[pgwenthold]

Mojo, excellent links you have provided.

I agree with SoapySam that hydrogen-bonding is an important aspect of water. And As BronzeDog pointed out the fun fact, "corrosiveness" of water as acid and base should makes for some interesting discussion.



Water is much too weak of an acid or base for the "corrosiveness" to be interesting on those grounds (pure water still has pH = 7)

The main corrosiveness comes from oxidation by oxygen dissolved in the water, or oxygen from the air on wet surfaces.