GENERAL CHEMISTRY 2

Name: ____________________________ Grade Level: _________

Date: _____________________________ Score: ______________

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

PROPERTIES OF WATER AND INTERMOLECULAR FORCES

Background Information for the Learners (BIL)

Water makes up a large proportion of the entire biosphere and of these, 95%
is saltwater and the remaining 5% is freshwater.
Water is locked up in ice and glaciers, deep and shallow underground lakes,
soil, atmosphere, and in rivers. The human body consists of 50-75% water. Water
serves important purposes for life on earth. Water’s unique properties result from the
strong intermolecular force of attraction characterized by the hydrogen bond.
Some substances, like common table salt, NaCl, dissolve in water very easily.
When placed in water, sodium chloride molecules fall apart. The positively charged
sodium ion (Na+) binds to oxygen, while the negatively charged chloride ion (Cl-)
attaches to hydrogen. This property of water allows for the transport of nutrients vital
to life in animals and plants. A drop of rainwater falling through the air dissolves
atmospheric gases. When rain reaches the earth, it affects the quality of the land, lakes
and rivers.

The following are properties of water:

1. Boiling point and freezing point. The high boiling point of water is a
consequence of its strong intermolecular forces of attraction caused by the
formation of the H-bond. It also explains why water is liquid at room
temperature. Due to hydrogen bonding, water molecules cling to each other
(cohesion) and remain in liquid state under temperatures that are favorable to
plants and other living organisms.
Pure water at sea level boils at 100 0C and freezes at 0 0C, but extra
energy is needed to push water molecules into the air. This is called latent
heat—the heat required to change water from one phase to another. At higher

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 elevations (lower atmospheric pressure) water’s boiling temperature
decreases. This is why it takes longer to boil and egg at higher altitudes. The
temperature does not get high enough to cook the egg properly. If a substance
is dissolved in water, then the freezing point is lowered. Energy is lost when
water freezes. A great deal of heat is released into the environment when liquid
water changes to ice. It is lost when the high energy phase of liquid water moves
to the low energy phase of ice. Nights when ice freezes often feel warmer than
nights when ice melts.

2. Specific heat. Specific heat refers to the amount of heat needed to change the
temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1 oC. For water, its specific heat is
1cal/g oC. It means that water can absorb and release large quantities of heat
without change in temperature. This is the reason why body temperature
remains at 37 oC even when there’s a change in the surrounding. This also
explains why oceans and lakes exert an influence on the climate. If there were
no large bodies of water, the earth would experience great temperature
variations. Water has a high specific heat. The amount of energy required to
raise the temperature of water by one degree Celsius is quite large. Because
so much heat loss or heat input is required to lower or raise the temperature of
water, the oceans and other large bodies of water have relatively constant
temperatures. Thus, many organisms living in the oceans are provided with a
relatively constant environmental temperature. The high water content of plants
and animals living on land helps them to maintain a relatively constant internal
temperature. The specific heat of water is 5 times greater than of sand.

3. Density in its liquid form. Water is the only substance that contracts when
cooled. For most substances, their solid form is denser than their liquid form.
This is because the H-bond is more extensive in its solid state than in its liquid
state. Ice has an open structure because the hydrogen bonds could not get
inside the hexagonal ring structure. This more open structure of the solid form
of water causes the ice to have smaller number of molecules packed in a given
volume. This causes the mass to be lower, hence, the density of ice is lesser
than the liquid water, and, as a result, ice floats on water. This also causes
water in lakes to freeze from the top down.

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 Water is most dense at 4 0C and then begins to expand again (becoming less
dense) as the temperature decreases further. This expansion occurs because
its hydrogen bonds become more rigid and ordered. As a result, frozen water
(ice floats) upon the denser cold water. The expansion of water takes place
even before it actually freezes. This explains why a pond freezes from the
surface down, rather than from the bottom up. As water temperature drops, the
colder water (0-4 0C) where it is less dense— rises to the pond surface. It
freezes to form a lid of ice. This ice insulates the water below from the wintry
chill so that it is less likely to freeze. Organisms that inhabit the pond are able
to survive the frigid winter below the icy surface.

For most substances, solids are denser than liquids. But the special properties of
water make it less dense as a solid. Ice floats on water! Strong hydrogen bonds formed
at freezing 0 0C lock water molecules away from each other. When ice melts, the
structure collapses and molecules move closer together. Liquid water at 4 0C is about
9% denser than ice. This property plays an important role in lake and ocean
ecosystems. Floating ice often insulates and protects animals and plants living in the
water below.

4. Surface tension. The hydrogen bond formation among water molecules

causes water to have high surface tension, as described earlier. This high
surface tension causes water to move from the roots of a tree to the top of very
tall trees and explains why water moves into the fibers of a towel. This
phenomenon is called capillarity.

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 Water molecules at the surface (next to air) hold closely together, forming an
invisible film. Water’s surface tension can hold weight that would normally sink.
You can carefully float a paper clip on top of the water. Some aquatic insects
such as the water strider or pond skater rely on surface tension to walk on
water. Surface tension is essential for the transfer of energy from wind to water
to create waves. Waves are necessary for rapid oxygen diffusion in lakes and
seas. Next to mercury, water has the highest surface tension of all commonly
occurring liquids.
Cohesion—Water molecules stick to each other. This is due to the hydrogen
bonds among the molecules. Water molecules at the surface have a much
greater attraction for each other than for molecules in the air. This cohesiveness
creates a high surface tension at the surface of the water. The water molecules
at the surface crowd together, producing a strong layer as they are pulled
downward by the attraction of other water molecules beneath them.
Adhesion—Water molecules stick to other substances. You can see this
property when water creeps up the inside of a drinking glass. Think of a sponge
or a paper towel used to “soak up” spilled water. This is how water makes things
wet. Water also clings to living things. Most plants have adapted to take
advantage of water’s adhesion that helps move water from the roots to the
leaves. This is called capillary action. This can also be seen as blood moves
through our capillaries, carrying nutrients to each cell within our body. One of
the tallest plants is the redwood tree. Water moves from its roots to its leaves,
more than 90 m above the ground. As a plant loses water through pores in the
leaves, more water moves up from roots and stems to replace the lost water.
The process of water loss by leaves is known as transpiration.
Thermal properties - Water absorbs or releases more heat than many
substances for each degree of temperature increase or decrease. Because of
this, it is widely used for cooling and for transferring heat in thermal and
chemical processes. Differences in temperature between lakes and rivers and
the surrounding air may have a variety of effects. For example, local fog or mist
is likely to occur if a lake cools in the surrounding air enough to cause
saturation—small water droplets are suspended in the air. Large bodies of
water, such as the oceans or the Great Lakes, have a profound influence on
climate. They are the world’s great heat reservoirs and heat exchangers and

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 the source of much of the moisture that falls as rain and snow over adjacent
landmasses. When water is colder than the air, precipitation is curbed, winds
are reduced, and fog banks are formed. These properties of water are crucial
in stabilizing temperatures on earth.

5. Heat of vaporization. Large amount of heat is needed to vaporize a given

amount of water. This causes a significant drop in temperature during
evaporation. When molecules of water absorb heat energy, they move fast in
water. Eventually, the speed of movement of some molecules becomes so fast
allowing them to overcome the intermolecular attraction, detach from the multi-
molecular water, form bubbles, and leave the water surface in gas state. This
property of water helps to cool down the body of living organisms. This is called
evaporative cooling. In humans, body heat is used to vaporize sweat; in plants,
heat is likewise used in converting liquid water to water vapor which then
escapes into the atmosphere. This natural process of vaporizing plant water is
called transpiration.

6. pH. Water molecules have a tendency to ionize. They dissociate into ions
(charged particles) hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-). In pure water
a very small number of water molecules form ions in this way. The tendency of

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 water to dissociate is balanced by the tendency of hydrogen ions and hydroxide
ions to reunite to form water. A neutral solution contains an equal number of
hydroxide ions and hydrogen ions. A solution with a greater concentration of
hydrogen ions (H+) is said to be acidic. A solution with a greater concentration
of hydroxide (OH-) ions is said to be alkaline or basic.

Learning Competency:

Explain the properties of water with its molecular structure and intermolecular forces
(STEM_GC11IMFIIIa-c-103)

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Activity 1: MIND POWER

Part A.
Directions: Identify what property of water is being shown on the pictures
below.

1.

→ _____________________

2.

→ _____________________

3.

→ _____________________

4.

→ _____________________

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 5.

→ _____________________

Part B.
Directions: Answer the following questions briefly but substantially

1. What is cohesion?
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2. Why do some water insects able to walk on water? Explain.

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3. Define adhesion.
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4. Explain how adhesion and cohesion help plants move materials.

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 5. When is water the densest?
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6. Explain why ice floats.

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7. How is a lake or a river that freezes over helpful to the organisms in the
water?
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8. What property is responsible when water get to the leaves in the top of the
tallest trees against the force of gravity? Explain.
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9. Why is solid water less dense than liquid water?

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Activity 2: EXPLORING PROPERTIES

Directions: Choose the letter/letters of the property of water related to each

phenomenon described below. More than one property may be used to explain the
given phenomenon.

a. Water molecules are cohesive, they form hydrogen bonds with each other.
b. Water molecules are adhesive, they form hydrogen bonds with polar surfaces.
c. Water is a liquid at normal physiological temperature.
d. Water has high specific heat.
e. Water has a high heat of vaporization.
f. Water shows high surface tension.

______1. During the winter, air temperature in the northern parts of the planet can
remain below zero degrees Celsius for months, however, the fish and other animals
living in the lakes survive.
______2. Many substances, for example, salt (NaCl) and sucrose, dissolve quickly in
water.
______3. When you pour water into a 25mL cylinder, a meniscus forms at the top of
the water column.
______4. Sweating and the evaporation of sweat from the body surface help reduce
a human’s body temperature.
______5. Water drops that fall on a surface tend to form rounded drops or beads.
______6. If you put the end of a paper towel to a coloured water, the water will move
up into the towel.
______7. A paper clip can float on water.
______8. When you place a straw into a glass of water, the water seems to climb up
the straw before you even place your mouth on the straw.
______9. Water is most dense at about 4°C. As a result, the water at the bottom of a
lake or the ocean usually has temperature of about 4°C.
_____10. If you drop a tiny amount of water onto a very smooth surface, the water
molecules will stick together and form a droplet, rather than spread out over the
surface.

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Activity 3: WORD HUNT

Part A.
Directions: Fill in the blanks with words that corresponds to the statements below.
Choose the word in the word bank.

covalent solvent deposition dissolve

cohesion adhesion polar viscosity
negatively positively surface tension

1. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms are held together by ____________ bonds.

2. The electrons are not shared equally creating a ________ molecule.

3. The polarity of water allows it to ___________ most substances.

4. Water molecules stick to other water molecules. This property is called

_______.

5. Hydrogen bonds form between adjacent molecules because the _________

charged hydrogen end of one water molecule attracts the ________ charged
oxygen end of another molecule.

Part B.
Directions: Answer the following questions briefly but substantially.

1. When you warm up oil and water. Which temperature will rise faster?
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 2. What items can you gently “float” on water surface? (e.g., paperclips, needles,
etc.)
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3. What happens to the bonds (hydrogen bonds) when water boils?
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Reflection

1. I learned that _______________________________________________________

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2. I enjoyed most on ___________________________________________________

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3. I want to learn more on _______________________________________________

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References:

General Chemistry 2 Textbook by Ayson, Marissa F, et.al

Chemistry and Physics of Water Module 1; w4l.prel.org
General Chemistry 2 Teaching Guide
2. Water Has Excellent Solvent Action. (n.d.). Retrieved August 03, 2020, from
https://www.cropsreview.com/solvent.html
Boundless. (n.d.). Boundless Biology. Retrieved August 03, 2020, from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/water/
Mott, V. (n.d.). Introduction to Chemistry. Retrieved August 03, 2020, from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introchem/chapter/the-structure-and-properties-
of-water/
(n.d.). Retrieved August 03, 2020, from http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/
Wilkin, D., & Brainard, J. (2020, February 07). Structure and Properties of
Water. Retrieved August 03, 2020, from https://www.ck12.org/biology/structure-
and-properties-of-water/lesson/Biochemical-Properties-of-Water-Advanced-
BIO-ADV/

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