What Are the Unique Properties of Water and How Do They Affect Its Behavior?

[neginf]

1. Do adjacent water molecules fit together so tightly that water is "continuous" ?
2. If the answer to 1. is "no", what is in between them ?
3. What would the surface of a calm puddle look like if magnifed so individual molecules could be seen?

 

[phinds]

what does "continuous" mean to you in this context? Molecules are almost nothing but pure emptiness, so what is it that would be "continuous".

 

[neginf]

Maybe I should have asked if it had no gaps instead of using the word "continuous".

Is the answer to 1. "no" because the molecules are mostly gaps to start with and have gaps between them ?
Does this mean many things in ordinary life are mostly empty space ?

Does the surface of calm water appear smooth because of scale - if you could magnify it enough to see individual molecules, would that surface actually be not smooth and even changing shape ?

 

[phinds]

Maybe I should have asked if it had no gaps instead of using the word "continuous".

Is the answer to 1. "no" because the molecules are mostly gaps to start with and have gaps between them ?
Does this mean many things in ordinary life are mostly empty space ?

Does the surface of calm water appear smooth because of scale - if you could magnify it enough to see individual molecules, would that surface actually be not smooth and even changing shape ?

Water's a lot smoother than many things but I'm sure if you could see down to enough granularity it would be very ragged.

It's not that "many thing in ordinary life are mostly empty space" it's that EVERYTHING (outside of black holes and neutron stars) is amost pure space.

 

[neginf]

Thank you very much.

 

[rollcast]

For number three it would look something like this, the molecules at the top represent evaporation.

 

[Borek]

Nice picture, but it shows molecules as solid objects. This is not entirely correct - in some situations they behave like that, in others they don't.

 

[rollcast]

I would agree with your comment Borek but to visualize what's happening we could never illustrate it with enough detail to include electrons in their orbitals and such.

Also it was one of the better images on google and I couldn't find anything clearer.