Title of Assignment: Water Properties

Learning outcomes:
After this assignment, students should be able to:
● Describe the special properties of water that make it vital to living systems
● Explain how these properties are related to hydrogen bonding

Three-quarters of Earth’s surface is covered by water. Although most of this water is in liquid form,
water is also present on Earth as a solid (ice) and a gas (water vapor). Life on Earth began in water and
evolved there for 3 billion years before spreading onto land. All living organisms require water more
than any other substance. Human beings, for example, can survive more than a few weeks without
food, but only a week or so without water. Molecules of water participate in many chemical reactions
in the cells to sustain life. Most of the cells surrounded by water, and the cells themselves are about
70-95% water. Emergent properties of water explain the following observations:

● Transport of water more than 100 m upward from root to tip of the plants
● Marine organisms do not affect by changes of temperature
● Ice provides the hunting platform for polar bear
● Human body temperature does remain in a certain range
● Some insects can walk on the surface of water
● Discuss the properties of water molecules that make it so indispensable to life on earth.

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Table of content:
▪ Introduction (Pg.3)
▪ Properties of Water (Pg.5)
▪ Conclusion (Pg.9)
▪ References (Pg.10)

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1. Introduction

Water, H2O the element that covered 70% of the earth’s surface. Although most of this water is in liquid form,
water is also present on earth as solid and gas. Life on Earth began in water and evolved there for 3 billion
years before spreading onto land. All living organisms that live in the earth require water to survive. For
example, humans are able to survive 21 days without food when the person completely die from starvation.
But without water, according to Business Insider Malaysia (2018) human will not able to survive only within
a week after that the person will die from dehydration. It is because an adult body is made up of at least 60%
water and every living cell in the human body needs water to keep functioning. Humans need water is not
only to keep functioning but also act as a lubricant and protects for human joints and spinal cord regulates our
body temperature by sweating, respiration, and secretion. Source: Shutter stock,n.d

So, people might ask what is water, what is the big deal with
it and the special properties of water that make it vital to
living systems. Water is a colorless, transparent and
tasteless chemical substance. The chemical composition of
water is H2O. The example of the water is shown.
According to BWT 2019, the water composition is
discovered by a British chemist Henry Cavendish (1731-
1810). When he was experimented by mixing Hydrogen
and Oxygen, the elements react actively and created an Figure 1

explosion due to the oxyhydrogen effect. In 1811 after a year Henry Cavendish passed away, an Italian
physician Amadeo Avogadro had finally found the formula of water 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen H2O.
_ Reference: 2019, Britannica water,

H2O has several physical properties,

according to the Encyclopedia Britannica
2019 water are quite atypical. It is because
it has a low molar mass of its constituent
molecules. Water also has a large value of
viscosity, surface tension, heat of
vaporization and entropy of vaporization
it all because of its hydrogen bonding
interaction present in the liquid state of
water. The open structure of water in the
solid-state which is ice that allows for all
Figure 2
hydrogen bonding which can be explained

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why the solid-state water is less dense than liquid water. It is because it highly unusual situation among
common substances. The picture below is the selected physical properties of water.

In chemistry, water will affect the interactions by the electronegativity. Electronegativity is the attraction of
an atom for the electrons of a covalent bond. It is because the oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen,
the oxygen atom in the H2O pulls the electron toward the hydrogen. This resulted in the Oxygen to have a
negative charge and Hydrogen a positive. The neighboring atoms of water molecules with opposite partial
charges are attracted to each other and forming a hydrogen bond. The picture below is the periodic table and
the picture of the
hydrogen bonding of
water.

Source: 2019,
Newsweek, Tech &
Science Periodic
Table 150TH Birthday:
How Are New
Elements Discovered?

Figure 3

Source: 2018, Studyorgo.com, How do you tell when a

hydrogen bond will occur?

Figure 4

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3. Properties of water
● Water is the solvent of life
According to Dr. Helmenstine A.M Ph.D.’s (2019) article’s water is known as the universal
solvent due to the reason of most substances dissolving in it rather than any other chemicals. Universal
solvent is mean as the substance that can dissolve most chemicals. The polarity of water molecules plays
a big role here which carries a slight positive charge of Hydrogen along with the slight negative charge of
Oxygen. This polarity allows them to combine with ionic compounds (such as NaCl) by specifically
joining the positive part (Na) of the ionic compound with the oxygen side and vice versa (Cl) with the
hydrogen side. This makes it easy to break the bonds and dissolve certain substances.

Figure 5

● Oceans and lakes don’t freeze solid because ice floats

According to ZME SCIENCE (2017), water is a basic fuel life on earth. Water is essential to
every living organism. It also has a lot of interesting properties. One of which includes water being the
densest at 4°C; However, cool water is denser than both hot water and ice. The denser the substances
the more likely it is to sink than less dense which floats. So that means the ice will float on top of the
ocean or lakes. The reason why is because of the hydrogen bonds in the water. Water is a compound
of one Oxygen and two Hydrogen atoms and they are formed by a covalent bond that is very strong.
And another such type of bond between the water molecules are called hydrogen bond, which is weaker
compared to covalent bond. These bonds are formed between hydrogen atom which has a positive
charge and the oxygen atom which is negatively charged. When water is warm, the molecules are
active and collides around them. In the end, the bond will break. A chemical energy between them
allows to push closer to each other and move randomly.
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 As water getting cooler until it
freezes, the kinetic energy will
decrease and the molecules will
not be moving around anymore.
Because most does not contain
enough energy to break, move or
form bonds easily. So, they
instead form hexagonal lattice
structure along with more
hydrogen bonds. Ice takes a larger Figure 7
space than that off water. As
shown at the picture below (Figure 7). If we fill two glasses one with water and take one of the bottles
and freeze it, the ice eater glass would be lighter. When the water temperature increases the molecules
also move further apart. The lattice structure of the ice collapses and becomes denser as the ice melts.
During the moment when water’s temperature increases up to 4°C The kinetic energy of water
increases and the molecules collide faster and further apart. Hot water floats on cooler water as hot
water is less dense and takes more space. For example, when we go for a swimming the top part is
warm but if we put our legs below it will be getting colder. The buoyancy of ice plays an important
role in life on earth. Lakes surface will freeze during winter which will allow the aquatic organism to
survive below. If the lake bottom has frozen, organisms would not be able to survive. If the ice from
north or south pole starts to sink, it would kill all the aquatic organisms in that region. Eventually,
polar ice plays an
important role which
reflects the light and
keeps the temperature
of our planet low.

Source: 2017, NIMSoffice.

Figure 6

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 ● Water moderates’ temperatures on Earth
According to Climate Science Investigations from
NASA (2016), water is a fluid that allows heat to be mixed
hence oceans have a greater heat capacity than land. This shows
that the specific heat of water is greater than that of dry soil and
as ocean has a much larger mass of water this causes land areas
to heat easily. Therefore, the change in temperature in the land Figure 9

areas is rapid, compared to oceans. The high heat capacity of

water keeps the temperature within a narrow moderate range.

Figure 8

Source: Rain for Climate – Functional ecosystem

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 ● Organisms depend on the cohesion of water molecules
The formation of hydrogen bonds is due to the neighboring hydrogen and oxygen atoms of adjacent
water molecules which forms cohesion also known as the
stickiness between the molecules. This shows that water has
high surface tension, therefore, cohesiveness allows water to
form the perfect sphere water droplet. Organisms that depend
on cohesion include fish and aquatic insects as well.; They use
water as a means for transport as water stick close to their
Figure 10
bodies which allows them to move in a seamless way as
suggested by the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (2019).
_ water strider (Gerridae) - (Figure 11) Hydrogen bonds denoted by -- (dashed lines) (Figure 10)

Figure 11

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4. Conclusion
In a nutshell, water is a compound formed from both Hydrogen and Oxygen elements this allows them to form
Hydrogen bonds between other water molecules. Hydrogen bonds allows water to have certain properties such
as Cohesion, Adhesion, High specific heat capacity, Surface tension as well as allow them to act as a Solvent.
Most organisms rely on water due to these properties for their transport and chemical reactions.

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5. References
- NASA, 2016. Climate Science Investigations (CSI) - Water’s influence on temperature [Online]
Available at: http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/module-3/why-does-temperature-vary/land-and-water.php
> [Accessed 13 October 2019]
- University of Hawaii Manoa, 2019. Hydrogen bonds make water sticky [Online] Available at:
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/chemical/properties-water/hydrogen-bonds-make-
water-sticky > [Accessed 13 October 2019]
- Baird, 2013. Why don’t the oceans freeze? [Online] Dr. Christopher S. Baird Available at:
https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/04/29/why-dont-the-oceans-freeze/> [Accessed 13 October 2019]
- Helmenstine, 2019. Why is water the universal solvent? [Online] Anne Marie Helmenstine
Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/why-is-water-the-universal-solvent-609417> [Accessed 13
October 2019]
- StudyOrgo, 2018. How do you tell when a hydrogen bond will occur? [Online] Available at:
https://www.studyorgo.com/blog/how-do-you-to-tell-when-a-hydrogen-bond-will-occur/>
[Accessed 3 October 2019]
- Georgiou, 2019. Periodic Table 150th Birthday: How are new elements discovered? [Online]
Aristos Georgiou Available at: https://www.newsweek.com/periodic-table-150th-birthday-
elements-1352390> [Accessed 3 October 2019]
- ThoughtCo. 2019 Ice and the Density of water [Online] Available at:
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-does-ice-float-604304
- Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019 Water [Online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/science/water
- MERCK n.d, Periodic Table of the Elements [Online] Available at:
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-documents/articles/biology/periodic-table-of-elements-
names.html
- Studyorgo.com 2018, How do you tell when a hydrogen bond will occur? [Online] Available at:
https://www.studyorgo.com/blog/how-do-you-to-tell-when-a-hydrogen-bond-will-occur/
- BUSINESS INSIDER (Malaysia) 2018, Here’s how many days a person can survive without water
[Online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.my/how-many-days-can-you-survive-without-
water-2014-5/?r=US&IR=T
- EVERYDAY HEALTH 2019, The Health Benefits of water [Online] Available at:
https://www.everydayhealth.com/water-health/water-body-health.aspx
- ZME SCIENCE 2017, The reason why ice floats [Online] Available at:
https://www.zmescience.com/other/science-abc/reason-ice-floats/

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