“In the bath and the bath, always and everywhere - the eternal glory of the water!” - these verses by Korney Chukovsky are familiar from childhood. Water is everywhere. The physical and chemical properties of water are unique, and these are not empty words. In addition to affecting the life of every living organism (we are all made up of water), weather parameters, climatic cataclysms, and changes in the surface topography of the Earth are often associated with water. The descent of glaciers during the last ice age formed the outlines of modern Europe. The currents of the oceans affect temperature across all continents.
Everyone knows that water can be in liquid - water itself, solid - ice and gaseous state - steam. There is nothing unusual in this fact. The special physical and chemical properties of water, unlike the behavior of other chemical elements, affect most of the processes taking place on Earth.
If we turn to history, we can notice an interesting pattern. Medieval alchemists tried to make gold from different metals, and the very properties of metals have always been carefully studied, but the amazing properties of water have attracted attention recently.
Even 200 years ago, mankind believed that water consists of one chemical element, and is not a chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Mankind has already been building hydroelectric power plants, steam locomotives, steamboats with might and main, water energy was used in many industries and everyday life, and the structure of water has been studied very little. Just 80 years ago, isotopic compounds of water were discovered.
Let's take a closer look at the physical and chemical properties of water. In addition to simple 2 molecules - hydroles known to everyone, dihydroli (2) 2 and trihydroli (2) 3 are formed in water. The difference between these compounds is that each of them contains not one, but two or three water molecules. The state of water determines the amount of such compounds in it.
With a change in water temperature, each molecule changes its speed, hence the change in the distance between the molecules and the percentage of different aggregates. Steam mainly consists of hydrols, this is due to the high speed of movement of molecules in the vaporous state, which does not allow the formation of more bulky structures. Ice, on the contrary, mainly contains trihydroles (up to 60%); we can say that there are practically no hydroles in it. Water in its composition has each of the aggregates, but dihydrole prevails in it.
The structural features of water significantly affect its density in various states. The density of ice is less than the density of water. Therefore, ice is on the surface of all water bodies on Earth. The inhabitants of the sea and river depths do not freeze; a thick layer of ice protects them from the cold.
Water is a universal solvent. The dielectric constant characterizes the ability of any substance to dissolve, and so in water this value is several times higher than in vacuum, not to mention air. Pure water does not occur in nature, more than 80 water compounds with different elements of the periodic system have already been found in the oceans. Therefore, water is literally the basis of life on our planet.
Most often it is believed that solubility is a property of water, through which we drink it. Solubility helps to quickly remove unwanted and recycled substances from the body and at the same time allows you to deliver the necessary to various organs.
But in this case, they somehow forget about the specific heat. The fact is that the lowest heat capacity of water falls at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. And with the least heat capacity, the energy costs of changes are minimal, and it is this temperature that is the main one in most warm-blooded animals and humans. These physical and chemical properties of water have a significant impact on everyone's life. If there is not enough water in the body, then the person begins to be lazy, he may feel dizzy, the processes taking place in the body slow down. Therefore, very often it is enough to drink a glass of water to again feel in shape.