Water and the Fitness of the

Environment
Lecture Outcomes
● Appreciate the role of covalent polar bonds in water
molecules and formation of hydrogen bonds as the basis
of water’s properties
● Understand how four properties of water contribute to
Earth’s suitability for life
● How acidic and basic pH conditions affect living
organisms
How much of the earth
surface is covered by
water?
Three quarters of the
Earth’s

What are the three

states of water?
Liquid (Water)
Gas (Water Vapour)
Solid (ICE)

What percentage of
water is present in a
human cell?
70% - 95%
 Shape Electronegativity

Polar covalent bond exists

when atoms with different
electronegativities share
electrons in a covalent bond
V- shaped
Positive and
negative side of
Bond water molecules

Covalent bond
Attraction

+
charge

NOTE:
Hydrogen 1. Covalent bond
Bond stronger than
hydrogen bond.
- 2. Hydrogen bond are
charge
weak in liquid phase
(Water)
3. New water molecules
are always being
forming, breaking,
and forming again.
Four Properties of Water Make
it Crucial to Support Life
1. Cohesion
● Cohesion = sticking together

● Hydrogen bonds between water

molecules make them cohesive (stay close together)
● This helps trees draw water from the roots to the leaves
● Water molecules in leaves at the top pull on the water molecules
below them all the way down to the roots, as shown in the next slide
Surface Tension
● Surface tension is the ability of water molecules to
stay together, and resist external forces trying to
break them apart
● For example, some insects can walk on a water
surface because the water molecules hold onto each
other through hydrogen bond and resist the force
exerted by the legs
https://youtu.be/kx02qT2p5uk?si=JwyE1UFdIPjOE-1
D&t=37
● Water has a higher surface tension than most other
liquids
2. Moderation of Temperature
● Water moderates air temperature by absorbing
heat from air that is warmer and releasing the
stored heat to air that is cooler
● Water is effective as a heat bank because it can
absorb or release a relatively large amount of
heat with only a slight change in its own
temperature
● Why is water able to do that? Why is that
important for living beings?
● To understand this capability of water, we must
first look briefly at heat and temperature
Heat and Temperature
● Anything that moves has kinetic energy, the energy
of motion.
● Atoms and molecules have kinetic energy because
they are always moving
● The faster a molecule moves, the greater its kinetic
energy
● Heat = measurement of the total kinetic energy for
the whole amount of matter
● Temperature is the average kinetic energy of the
molecules in matter
https://
www.physics.utoronto.ca/
~jharlow/teaching/everyday06/
● The cup of tea has a higher temperature than the swimming pool,
because the molecules in tea have more kinetic energy on average.
However, the swimming pool has more heat because it has more
molecules, and the total kinetic energy of all the molecules in the
swimming pool is more than the total kinetic energy of all the
molecules in the small cup of tea
● When two objects of different temperature
are brought together, heat passes from the
warmer to the cooler object until the two
are the same temperature.
● An ice cube cools a drink not by adding
coldness to the liquid, but by absorbing
heat from the liquid as the ice itself melts.