Water Flashcards
Properties + roles of water
- High specific heat capacity
- Acts as a buffer against rapid temp changes
- High latent heat of vaporisation
- Great solvent
- Great Cohesion
- Used in metabolic reactions
High specific heat capacity
Put in or take out a large amount of energy to change the temp of water.
What happens when you heat water?
The heat energy goes towards weakening or breaking the hydrogen bonds, rather than increasing kinetic energy of the water molecules.
Why is it useful that H2O can act as a buffer against rapid temp changes?
Allows water to act as a habitat for aqueous organisms as the temp does not change rapidly.
Why is it important that ice is less dense than water?
It insulates water below the ice and prevents it from freezing so organisms can live inside.
Why is it useful that H2O has a high specific heat capacity?
It takes a large amount of heat energy to evaporate water which allows organisms to cool themselves without losing a lot of water.
H2O as a solvent is useful how?
Meaning lots of substances can dissolve in water
e.g.,
- O2 dissolves in ponds to provide respiration for aquatic organisms.
- Used to transport substances like in blood plasma
- Transport substances in the xylem vessels of plants.
How is useful that water is good at cohesion?
- Allows long columns of water to travel in the xylem tubes.
- Also causes surface tension where water meets air. This is useful as it allows the surface to act as a habitat.
