Water Flashcards
What are the properties of water?
Its a solvent, a transport medium, a coolant, and a habitat
Example of water being a solvent:
Acts as a solvent + many solutes in an organism can be dissolved
Solutes = Nutrients (glucose), and minerals (salt)
Example of water being a transport medium:
Transports dissolved substances in + out of cells. Cohesion means that when water is transported through body, molecules will stick to it
Example of water being a coolant:
Evaporation facilities cooling - due to high heat of vaporisation. Water can also carry heat to cooler places in body
E.g. Sweating in animals, transpiration in plants
Examples of water being a habitat:
Provides constant environment to aquatic organisms - stable + doesn’t change temp
E.g. Pond skaters live on surface of water due to surface tension. Aquatic plants live underwater due to water transparency + ability to dissolve gases and nutrients
What is a solvent?
A substance that dissolves solutes
What is a coolant?
Substance used to regulate temp of a system
What is a habitat?
Natural environment where an organism lives
Define polar molecule:
A molecule that has positive regions and negative regions
Describe hydrogen bonds:
Weak forces of attraction between positive pole of hydrogen atom + negative pole of another atom
What is cohesion?
Where a substance moves as 1 mass since the other molecules are attracted to each other
What is adhesion?
Where water molecules are attracted to other molecules
