The properties of water Flashcards
Why are the electrons of hydrogen pulled towards the oxygen?
Oxygen has more protons
Why is water polar?
Across the molecule, there is a difference in charge. The hydrogen electrons are positive whereas the oxygen atom is slightly negative.
What does the polarity of water allow?
This allows hydrogen bonds to form between slightly negative oxygen and slightly positive hydrogen.
What are the properties of water?
Important metabolite
Good solvent
Large latent heat of vaporisation
High heat capacity
Strong cohesion between molecules
What is a metabolic reaction?
Processes that occur in living cells
What is a metabolite?
A substance involved in metabolic reactions
Why is water a metabolite?
Its involved in reactions such as condensation and hydrolysis.
Why is water a good solvent?
Water can allow ionic compounds to dissolve and form a solution. This allows useful substances to be dissolved and transported around the organism.
Why does water have a high latent heat of vaporisation?
It takes a lot of energy to break hydrogen bonds to allow then become a gas.
How does the large cooling effect happen?
Before the hydrogen bonds break, small amounts of water have a large cooling effect through evaporation. E.g. sweating
Why is does water have a high heat capacity?
Lots of energy is needed to heat water specifically but most of the energy is absorbed by the hydrogen bonds.
Why is water having a high heat capacity useful?
It prevents water from having rapid temperature change. Water bodies have more stable temperatures which helps organisms to regulate their own body temperature.
Why does water have strong cohesion?
Because they are polar so the molecules stick together
What does having strong cohesion allow?
water to flow easily which supports columns of water in the tube-like transport cells of plants and produces surface tension so insects can skate on water
Why is ice less dense than water?
The molecules spread out to form a crystal lattice structure. This forms an insulating layer so the water doesn’t freeze below
