Water is the most important substance in a human’s life as it is the thing he needs to survive. It makes up around 73% of the human body and around 80% of the earth. Water has many characteristics that are linked to its uses and that make it useful and important to us.
The structure of water is two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen atom . The oxygen atom has a valency of 6 which means that it has 6 electrons in its outer shell while each hydrogen atom has 1 electron in its outer. The two hydrogen atom shares one electron with the oxygen and the oxygen atoms shares back one electron to each of the hydrogen atoms. This allows the two hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom to have full outer shell. The structure of a water molecule is …show more content…
This means that water can dissolve many substances. An example of the use of this property is in the human body, water allows many substances that are essential in the body to dissolve. The reason why water is a very good solvent is because it is dipolar so both negatively and positively charged substances can dissolve in it. An example of this is sodium chloride salt, it dissolves completely in water because the oxygen and the hydrogen pull the sodium and chlorine atoms apart as they attract them. The slightly negative oxygen atom attracts the positive sodium ion while the hydrogen atoms attract the negative chlorine ion. It has other properties that are also used in the human body such as it being a medium which all chemical reactions take place in living cells and a medium of transport of all substances in the body . Another property of water is that it has high melting and boiling points . This means that water has a high specific heat which is why it takes up a lot of heat before its temperature increases and loses a lot of heat before its temperature decreases. This characteristic is very important as it contributes to the moderation of the earth’s temperature and the moderates the internal temperature of all living organisms . The reason why water has a high boiling point is because in order to evaporate water, the hydrogen bonds need to be broken. And to do that it needs fast moving molecules to break the bonds which require heat to give energy to the molecules to move quickly. This property is what enables water to help stabilize the temperature of lakes and bonds and also the earth
The structure of water is two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen atom . The oxygen atom has a valency of 6 which means that it has 6 electrons in its outer shell while each hydrogen atom has 1 electron in its outer. The two hydrogen atom shares one electron with the oxygen and the oxygen atoms shares back one electron to each of the hydrogen atoms. This allows the two hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom to have full outer shell. The structure of a water molecule is …show more content…
This means that water can dissolve many substances. An example of the use of this property is in the human body, water allows many substances that are essential in the body to dissolve. The reason why water is a very good solvent is because it is dipolar so both negatively and positively charged substances can dissolve in it. An example of this is sodium chloride salt, it dissolves completely in water because the oxygen and the hydrogen pull the sodium and chlorine atoms apart as they attract them. The slightly negative oxygen atom attracts the positive sodium ion while the hydrogen atoms attract the negative chlorine ion. It has other properties that are also used in the human body such as it being a medium which all chemical reactions take place in living cells and a medium of transport of all substances in the body . Another property of water is that it has high melting and boiling points . This means that water has a high specific heat which is why it takes up a lot of heat before its temperature increases and loses a lot of heat before its temperature decreases. This characteristic is very important as it contributes to the moderation of the earth’s temperature and the moderates the internal temperature of all living organisms . The reason why water has a high boiling point is because in order to evaporate water, the hydrogen bonds need to be broken. And to do that it needs fast moving molecules to break the bonds which require heat to give energy to the molecules to move quickly. This property is what enables water to help stabilize the temperature of lakes and bonds and also the earth