Water and its properties

Water, although we strip it from all its symbolic ornaments, will continue to fascinate us for various reasons: it remains a challenge for science, has and has a fundamental economic influence and has played and continues to play, important social, historical, technological, poetic and literary roles in general. In all religions it arises before the solid part. For example in Genesis: “God separated the waters among those around him and ordered them to meet in one place, the lower waters.” In a watery medium it is intuitive that life originated. From a chemical point of view it is formed by only two atoms, hydrogen and oxygen. The first and third of the most common atoms in the universe. Today we will look at the influence of his characteristics, many unique and unique, in the world around us and in our own lives.

The water has two phase changes (fixed-liquid and liquid gas) to 0 and 100 degrees Celsius (ºC) respectively. It is the first singularity. It breaks the empirical rule that would correspond to an estimated cooking temperature of 60 ° C below zero and coagulation of 90 ° C below zero. It is the only substance that appears on earth in its three states: fixed (ice), liquid (called water) and gas (water vapor). Moreover, the wide temperature margin in which the liquid is is essential for life. When you go from solid to liquid and gas fluid, energy must be supplied (latent heat). This latent heat is an important climate controller. The specific heat is 17 times larger than silver and 33 than lead. Thanks to this high value, the oceans warm up slowly and cool down slowly and the human body keeps heat. By solid, against the usual, it increases its volume. This ensures that ice floats in the water and that only watery surfaces (rivers, lakes and seas) are avoided in cold areas, avoiding the death of water life. The surface tension is between two and three times higher than that of common liquids. This causes drops or that insects can be placed on the surface of a river and therefore, for example, to fish are fishing. It has a large adhesion on the walls of the tubes, with which you can rise through the capillaries. The viscosity, the difficulty of a liquid to flow, varies with temperature, so it is very important to take this into account with many applications. Thus a river with a stream of 23,000 l/day at 12 ° C is reduced to 18,000 l/day to 4ºC. This variation with the temperature must be taken into account when calculating fire mouths. Water is a universal solvent. There are some specific, more effective, but only for a certain application. This characteristic is the one who has pierced caves and tunnels and eroded the earth. It is a liquid with a neutral pH, neither sour nor basic. Another uniqueness, difficult to explain, is that the density has a maximum value at 4 degrees Celsius. Conclusion: with respect and caution we must treat this fundamental liquid for our lives.